Nidaime Rikudo Sennin
by Night Times
Summary: In a world where Naruto's family doesn't die and he has siblings, comes a different twist to the story we all know and love. Strong Naruto, Rinnegan Naruto
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This is a fan-made story. All rights of Naruto go to Masashi Kishimoto.

The Profile Image being used is Rikudo Naruto from the game _Unlimited Ninja_. Go check it out if you want.

 **The Story Begins**

"Agggghhhhhh!" A woman's scream echoed throughout the cave as the moon shined on throughout the night. This scream belonged to one Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, a beautiful woman with fiery red hair, violet eyes, and a temperament to match it. She had a slender body, with fair skin and d-cup breasts, and was regarded throughout the Village Hidden in the Leaves as one of the most beautiful women. You may wonder why such a person would be screaming at nighttime, within a cave seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Well, the reasoning behind this is because she was currently in labor.

"Minato! I'm going to kill you for making me go through this!" Kushina yelled as she tightly gripped the bed she was lying on. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, sweat-dropped as he kept his hands over Kushina's navel, his eyes focused on the seal that was on her body. Known only to a select few, Kushina was a jinchūriki, a term meaning 'Power of the Human Sacrifice'. She was the host to the Kyūbi the Nine-Tailed Fox, a being of immense power that had been sealed into her when she was a young little girl.

A fact unknown to most people is that a female jinchūriki's seal weakens considerably during childbirth. Minato was there, not only because he is going to be the father to Kushina's child, but also to watch the seal and make sure that it didn't deteriorate from the pregnancy.

"Concentrate on pushing, Kushina. It shouldn't be long now." That was Biwako, Hiruzen Sarutobi's wife and serving as Kushina's midwife. Taji, a young medic-nin assisting Biwako, was standing to the side, preparing washcloths and several towels that would be used soon.

Loud pants could be heard from Kushina as her body clenched from the pain. A few moments later Biwako stood up from her crouched position, holding a small baby in her arms. The baby was small, pudgy-looking, and had small tufts of red hair on his head. "It's a boy! Taji, could you help wash and clean him? We're still waiting on the others." After handing the little boy over to Taji, Biwako turned back to face Kushina as she crouched down and watched for the signs of another baby coming.

This process repeated itself three more times, before Kushina finally relaxed from her painful exertions. The second child to have been born was another boy, who had blonde tufts of hair instead of red. The third child of the four was a girl, who also had blonde hair. And the final baby was another girl, who had small streaks of red within her blonde hair. The four babies were brought by Kushina as she held them close to her.

"They're beautiful," Minato said, momentarily forgetting about the seal as he cradled the red-headed boy close to Kushina. No one couldn't see the happiness that shone off of both of their faces.

Kushina brought up her left hand to stroke the child in Minato's arms, as her right arm was preoccupied with the other three children. "I want to name this one Naruto," Kushina gestured with her left hand.

"And the other three?" queried Minato.

"The blonde boy will be named... Menma. The blonde girl will be named... Natsumi. And the red girl will be named... Naomi. How does that sound?"

"It sounds perfect, dear."

Smiling at the young couple and their children, Biwako watched for a few moments before coughing into her arm to grab their intention. "Sorry for interrupting, but we should check over the children immediately for any complications during the birth."

Sighing, Minato nodded wearily as he handed the newly named Naruto over to Biwako. "Yeah you're right. Besides, I should probably seal the Kyūbi back up right away."

However, the moment he turned away, he heard two thumps on the ground behind him, before he heard a deep voice that chilled him down to the bone. "Hello there, Yondaime Hokage."

As Minato slowly turned around, he saw a man garbed in dark robes, the only visible feature on him being his mask, colored orange with a black flame pattern on it. Only a single eyehole was visible on the mask, with a Sharingan eye staring right through it. Minato noticed that Biwako and Taji's bodies were lying on the ground motionless, but his attention was drawn towards the bundle in the masked man's arms. He was holding Naruto.

"Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Yellow Flash and its Fourth Hokage, I'm going to have to ask you to hand the Kyūbi over to me. Otherwise..." the masked man stated as he stroked Naruto's head with his hand, the glove on it the same color as his cloak.

"How did you get past all of the Anbu guards outside?" Minato asked, attempting to buy time as he desperately tried to think up a plan that would get them all out of this mess safe and sound. This options presented before him weren't pretty, and every strategy he came up with had risks he was unwilling to take.

"I killed them." The man stated with no emotion in his tone. "Now, will you hand over the Kyūbi or will I have to use force?" As his left arm cradled a silent Naruto, his right arm extended out towards Minato, his palm open facing upward, as if he were expecting his wish to be granted.

Minato stayed silent, opting to flex his fingers out as he mentally prepared himself for battle. His face had an unreadable expression to the masked man, who tensed as he prepared to make his move. Kushina, still tired after giving birth, could only glare at the masked man as she struggled to pick herself up, while cradling their other three children close to her chest. The atmosphere between the two sides was so intense one could hear every sound that was made during that time span.

The masked man sighed, and stated, "Very well then." He then threw Naruto up and across the cavern before rushing towards Kushina. Cursing, Minato made his split second decision and chased after Naruto. Catching him while in mid-air, Minato let out a sigh of relief, before noticing that attached to Naruto's towel were explosive seals primed and about to go off. A blast quickly followed, and smoke from the explosion soon blocked the masked man's sight, leaving him to wonder what had happened to the two before refocusing on getting to Kushina. Quickly moving over to where she was lying down, the masked man reached over to grab ahold of one of the three babies who were in the way of his target, only to activate a space-time ninjutsu on himself to prevent receiving a haymaker to the head from Minato.

Unbeknownst to the others, Minato had ripped the towel around off Naruto before utilizing his **Hiraishin** technique to teleport them both to a safe house a few miles away from the cave where the others were. The safe house itself was pretty unremarkable; a plain white bed was set against one wall of the house, shinobi supplies placed in boxes on an adjacent wall, and a single tri-pronged kunai hanged in midair on the opposite wall. He quickly set Naruto down onto the bed before teleporting back to the seal he had placed on Kushina's clothes, only to see the masked man reaching towards his newborn children. Acting quickly, Minato tried to force the masked man back by sending an elbow strike to the face, only to watch in shock as he phased through the man and hit the ground behind him. Kushina, after being startled by Minato's sudden reappearance, could only watch helplessly as she saw her husband literally go through the intruder's body without dealing any damage.

Thinking he was in control of the situation for the moment, the masked man turned around and stared at Minato, who was glaring at him as he propped one knee up while the other rested on the ground. "Very impressive, Namikaze. Had it not been for my jutsu **Kamui** you would have most likely stopped me. Unfortunately, you have failed. Now then, let's begin―" his eye widened slightly as Minato suddenly appeared before him, grabbed the other three babies, and disappeared. "Kuso," the masked man cursed as he stood still for a moment, before walking over to Kushina and caught her and the Kyūbi under a genjutsu with his Sharingan. He then picked Kushina up, before disappearing as a swirling vortex appeared out of nowhere and swallowed them whole.

* * *

Minato re-appeared in the safe house carrying Menma, Natsumi and Naomi in his arms. Walking over to where the bed was, he gently placed the three besides Naruto, who had fallen asleep in the midst of all the confusion. "Stay safe babies, daddy's going to go get mommy now." Turning to where the ninja supplies were, he quickly grabbed and strapped on his ninja pouch before he tried to sense where the seal marker he had put on Kushina was. For some inexplicable reason he couldn't sense where it was at all, but it soon popped up a good ways distance away from the cave. Immediately teleporting to the marker, Minato found himself holding onto Kushina while they plummeted from a 30 feet drop. Quickly maneuvering himself so that he was carrying her bridal style, he landed on the ground as softly as he could, before turning around to a sight that left him shocked. Standing there, in all its glory, was the Nine-Tailed Fox, with the masked man standing on a pillar of stone close by.

Taking a quick glance around, Minato could see that they were in a rocky region, with stone pillars coming out of the ground, water flowing underneath his feet, and trees growing a fair distance away. As he turned to look at the masked man, he could hear him mutter to himself. "Ahh, what a glorious sight. It's time for my revenge on the Hidden Leaf Village to begin." With that being said, he used **Kamui** to teleport himself out, leaving the Kyūbi as it thrashed about, with no sense of coherency in its movements.

Glancing at the Kyūbi, Minato knew he would have to do something about it soon. Its location was entirely too close to Konoha to his liking, and losing the bijuu would cause a major power shift among the major shinobi villages. The tailed beasts were a symbol of a village's strength, and losing their only bijuu would cause Konoha to lose a lot of power.

"Minato..." hearing Kushina talk weakly pulled at his heart as he turned to look at his tired wife. "The children... are they safe?" He was amazed that she could still talk to him. Considering the fact that most jinchūriki die when their bijuu is pulled out of their body, this just goes to show how powerful an Uzumaki's life force could be.

"Yes, love. I'll bring you to them now." Minato teleported the two of them back to the safe house, before walking over to the bed and setting Kushina down beside their four children. "I need to go and defend the village as its Hokage, but I'll try to get a medic to look after you and the children as soon as possible." Going back to where the shinobi supplies are, he quickly put on his jounin flak-jacket and his signature haori. Tying his hitai-ate to his forehead, he couldn't help but smile as he heard Kushina speaking quietly to their children.

Taking a few deep breaths, Minato calmed himself and cleared his mind, before his face showed an expression of grim determination. Teleporting himself to Hokage Monument, he looked down upon his village, ready to defend it from the incoming threat with his life, if necessary.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the Hokage's office in the Hokage tower. He was waiting for news that Kushina's birth had been successful and that her seal had been fixed again. His wife Biwako was helping her out with the birthing process, and he was worried that something would go wrong and she would be hurt as well. Thinking about the village's current situation, he let out a sigh as he looked out the window. The village itself looked quiet and peaceful, unaware that trouble was approaching them. Though he didn't know it yet, Hiruzen could feel that trouble was brewing, and suddenly felt glad that his two remaining loyal students were back in the village.

Tsunade Senju, the Slug Sannin of the Densetsu no Sannin, the Legendary Three Shinobi, was probably at the hospital maintaining order while drinking sake. She and her apprentice Shizune Kato had returned to the village a few weeks ago, due to the urging of both Minato and Kushina about her upcoming birth and the risk of her seal being undone. Being one of the few people who knew that Kushina was a jinchūriki, Tsunade had eventually agreed to return for the village's safety. She had also been promised the seat as head of the medical hospital and the training of new medic-nins, as well as enough ryos to pay off the debt she had accumulated during her years abroad. However, due to her hemophobia that she had developed during the Third Great Ninja War, she stayed at her office in the hospital, allowing Biwako to handle the birth.

Jiraiya, the Toad Sannin of the Densetsu no Sannin, was off doing his "research" again, if the girly scream heard off in the distance was any indication to his location. He had been much easier to convince in staying in the village. Due to being Minato's jounin sensei, Jiraiya had known about their upcoming children and had repeatedly stopped by to check in on them over the previous months. He had been the one to locate Tsunade and convince her to return to the village. And knowing about what happens to a female jinchūriki's seal when she gives birth, Jiraiya knew that problems could happen extremely quickly if they weren't careful. If only his actions could mirror the seriousness of the situation...

Within the village, nothing looked out of order. Villagers and shinobi alike were wandering around, enjoying the night sights and the warm atmosphere. Among them, Kakashi Hatake and Maito Gai were walking together as they headed towards the Hokage tower. "Ah, come on Kakashi! Do the challenge! 100 laps around the village, whoever wins gets to choose the next challenge!"

"Hmmm, you say something Gai?" Wearing standard-issue ANBU armor, a face mask, and a hitai-ate covering his left eye, Kakashi glanced over with his uncovered eye to look at Gai.

"Argghhh, curse you and your hip ways, Kakashi!" Gai ranted, wearing a green, skin-tight leotard with orange leg warmers and his hitai-ate around his waist.

Yes, everything seemed at peace within Konoha.

* * *

The masked man crouched on top of a building, watching over the happy citizens of Konoha. Gritting his teeth, as he remembered back to a time where he lived a happy and peaceful existence, without a care in the world, he whispered to himself, "Soon Konoha, you will suffer the same pain as I have."

Leaping across the rooftops, the masked man stealthily moved in towards the center of the village until he reached the edge of the market sector, where most of the village shops were located. Looking around, he saw that many of the people who were up and about came to this part of town.

Leaping down into an alleyway, where a few people took notice of him, the masked man went through several hand seals before slapping the ground and shouting, " **Kuchiyose no Jutsu!** "

A huge cloud of smoke burst into the air, and when the air cleared, everyone could see the Kyūbi no Kitsune, standing there waving his nine tails around in all his glory.

* * *

A huge burst of demonic chakra could be felt all across Konoha, sending terror throughout the people. Everyone, shinobi and civilians alike, could feel the malevolent anger and hate coming off the tailed beast. Darting outside, Hiruzen watched as the Kyūbi began destroying buildings and killing the civilians that were close to where it was located. Luckily, most of the civilians had enough sense to run away from the fox, where they were eventually guided by the younger shinobi to where the shelters were located.

The shinobi who weren't helping with the evacuation of the civilians were attacking the tailed beast directly. Using explosive notes, large scale jutsus, anything that they had in their arsenal they threw against the Kyūbi to no avail. The demon simply tanked itself through everything and still kept going. Shinobi that charged in were inevitably injured or killed as the Kyūbi continued on undisturbed. Even the ANBU had no success in their attempts to at least slow the beast down.

Changing into his battle armor quickly, which consisted of black mesh armor under padded armor that allowed for easy movement, with a helmet that had a leaf symbol on the front, the Third Hokage charged into battle. With ANBU covering his back, Hiruzen bit his finger, drawing blood before flashing through several hand seals and planting his hand on the ground. " **Kuchiyose no Jutsu!** " A puff of smoke arose in from of him, before dispersing to reveal the Monkey King Enma, wearing a black mesh armor suit with a sleeveless kimono shirt over it and a Konoha hitai-ate on his forehead.

"Hiruzen, what have you summoned me for today?" Enma queried before looking up to see the chakra monster. "Is that..."

"Yes Enma, the Kyūbi no Kitsune has been released, and is attacking our village. Minato is most likely either mounting up a defense or dealing with the culprit, so I need your help in holding the line here." Hiruzen replied as he watched as the Kyūbi continued his rampage.

"Very well Hiruzen. It has been awhile since we last fought together, ever since that Orochimaru fiasco, eh? I still think you should have killed him when you had the chance." Enma watched as Hiruzen lowered his in shame before he sighed. "Oh well. **Henge: Kongōnyoi!** " Enma transformed into a staff that was quickly caught by Hiruzen.

"Thank you Enma." Hiruzen said gratefully. Pointing the staff towards the Kyūbi, he shouted, "Extend!" The staff suddenly extended itself and hit the beast in the chest, pushing it back several feet and drawing its attention. Roaring in anger, the Kyūbi turned towards the Third Hokage and began channeling a huge amount of demonic chakra. A purplish sphere began to form above the tailed beast's head, pulsing with power. Hiruzen paled as he realized what attack the Kyūbi was performing. "Oh no... Everyone, get back!"

Swallowing the sphere in its mouth, the Kyūbi fired its **Bijūdama** at Hiruzen and his ANBU guard, the intense power rippling through the air. With no time to react, the Konoha shinobi could only watch helplessly as the deadly attack raced towards them, only to pass over their heads harmlessly. Turning around, Hiruzen could only watch in horror as the attack headed straight towards the Hokage monument, only to see it disappear before meeting its mark, followed by hearing an explosion several miles away. Making out a figure standing on top of one of the heads of the statues, Hiruzen could see a person standing there. Cheers could be heard across the village as they realized who it was. "Hooray!" "The Fourth has arrived!" "He will surely save us!" "Will you marry me?!"

* * *

Minato stood there on his statue head, watching the Kyūbi as it rampaged across his village. The **Bijūdama** had been a close call; were it not for his **Hiraishin: Dōrai** warping the attack away, Konoha would have lost an integral part of its history.

"Very impressive, I should have expected this from the Fourth Hokage." Turning his head, Minato saw the masked man standing on the Third Hokage's statue head. "You have become a nuisance to my plans. Be gone." Suddenly Minato felt the air around him distort, pulling him towards an unknown destination. Quickly teleporting himself to another marker, this time located in another safe house.

Pausing to catch his breath, Minato took the time to think several things over. 'What was that technique? How did he manage to sneak up on me without me noticing? Just who is he? I need to find out more about him.'

Boom.

The safe house exploded, pieces of the walls flying everywhere. The roof of the house was completely gone, the floor was scorched with ash and small fires were burning across the field surrounding the house. A lone tri-pronged kunai was lodged in the ground a couple of yards away from the destruction, and it was there that Minato reappeared from the destruction.

Catching his breath, Minato looked around for signs of any intruder, to see the masked man standing across the field from him. 'What was that attack? This man is no ordinary shinobi.' Pulling the kunai out of the ground, Minato stood up, glaring at the masked man before noticing a Sharingan in the uncovered eye hole of his mask. 'A Uchiha.' "Who are you? Why are you attacking my village?"

The masked man stood there silently for a few moments, as if he were pondering whether or not to answer the question posed before him. Finally, he spoke, "Who am I? I have gone by many names, for they are just something to call another person by. If you truly wish to know, I am nobody. As for why I am attacking, let's just say that Konoha wronged me a long time ago, and this is my revenge. And you are a threat to my plans." With that being said, the masked man charged at Minato, intent on ending his life.

Running towards the masked man, Minato went through his options quickly. 'His weird intangibility jutsu is the most important threat. However, I think he would have to stop the jutsu in order to attack. Therefore, I should aim for when he counterattacks.' With that in mind he focused on the threat before him. As they approached each other, Minato threw a feint with his right fist, missing the masked man. As the masked man's fist rose to strike Minato, he used his left arm to counter, only to phase through the man again, hitting the ground behind him.

"Did you really think I would fall for that? I know my own weaknesses." The masked man sneered as he once again charged at Minato. Standing up, Minato threw his tri-pronged kunai at the masked man before following it while charging up a **Rasengan**. As the kunai passed through the masked man's head and he struck out at Minato, Minato, using **Hiraishin: Ni no Dan** , teleported to the kunai that he had thrown moments before and thrusted the **Rasengan** down towards the masked man's back. Connecting, the attack grinded into the enemy's back and a loud explosion could be heard as his body hit the ground, creating a crater.

Before the masked man could react, Minato quickly used his other hand to hit the man's back with an open palm, shouting, " **Keiyaku Fūin!** " A seal matrix appeared on the masked man's back, before Minato jumped back and watch as the masked man slowly got back on his feet.

"What did you do Yondaime?" The masked man demanded, his left arm holding the remains of his right.

"I placed two seals on you. The first released the Kyūbi from your control, and the second marked you with my jutsu formula. I can now teleport to you whenever I want."

"Damn you... though my plan failed today, the end result will still be the same. I hope you enjoy as the Kyūbi smashes your village into rubble." A vortex formed around the masked man, sucking him in and leaving no trace other than the battleground that he had ever been there in the first place.

Minato let out a sigh, sagging his shoulders in relief before turning back towards the village, where he could see the Kyūbi still on his rampage. Mustering his strength, he quickly flashed back towards the village, knowing that the fight wasn't over yet.

* * *

Hiruzen stopped to catch his breath as the battle raged on. After he saw Minato warp the **Bijūdama** away, Minato had disappeared, leaving him to deal with the Kyūbi himself. Luckily his two students had arrived on the scene, providing some much needed support and boosting the shinobis' morale. Jiraiya had summoned Gamaken, and was attempting to do close combat with the threat without being severely injured in the process. Tsunade had summoned Katsuyu, who proceeded to divide herself up and provide healing support and a communication system across the entire shinobi force. Shizune was situated at a temporary field clinic, taking command as the head doctor.

All in all, the battle could be going better. Tsunade had joined Jiraiya on Gamaken's back, and was now providing support to Jiraiya who continued to badger the Kyūbi.

All of a sudden, the Kyūbi froze, as if it was released from someone's control and had no idea what it was doing. Hiruzen capitalized on this moment, extending his staff once again to push the tailed beast back. Gamaken soon followed, moving in to strike the demon in the chest, pushing it back even further.

Roaring in anger, the Kyūbi quickly formed another **Bijūdama** and attempted to fire it towards the giant toad. Key word being attempted.

As all of the shinobi paled, realizing exactly what it was doing and tried to get out of the way, a yell could be faintly heard below the beast, saying " **Kuchiyose no Jutsu!** " A large poof of smoke exploded underneath the Kyūbi's head, before a giant toad appeared and head butted the Kyūbi's head, causing the attack to shoot upwards, creating a hole in the clouds.

Gamabunta, the Toad Chief was seen as the smoke dispersed, and Hiruzen could see Minato jump onto the Toad Chief's head. Quickly running to join Minato, Hiruzen landed next to him on the toad's head. "Minato! Thank goodness you've arrived. Our shinobi force is in total disarray. Where have you been?"

While watching the Kyūbi, who was growling menacingly at them, Minato replied, "Don't worry Hiruzen, I was dealing with the culprit. I think I have a plan to stop the Kyūbi, but I'll need you, Jiraiya and Tsunade to help out."

"Help out with what Minato?" Jiraiya questioned as Gamaken landed besides Gamabunta. Tsunade looked at Minato as well, wondering what exactly he was planning.

"We will use the **Hakke no Fūin Shiki** and seal the Kyūbi into one of my children." Minato stated, his tone firm and steady.

"What?!" Hiruzen, Jiraiya and Tsunade exclaimed, shocked that he would even consider such an option.

"You heard me. We cannot seal it back into Kushina because she would die having all that power rush into her body again. In fact, it's a miracle that she's still alive right now. The only other option is to seal it within a baby, and I can't ask any other parent to offer their child if I'm not willing to do it with my own."

Hiruzen sighed, as he responded, "Very well Minato." At Jiraiya and Tsunade's incredulous glances, he elaborated, "What he said is true. If we are not willing to sacrifice something ourselves, we cannot ask someone else to do so for us and expect them to comply willingly. Now, what would you have us do?"

Quickly outlining his plan, Minato looked at each of the legendary shinobi before him and asked, "Are you with me on this?"

"Yes." "Sure." "Fine, brat." Were the replies he got from the three shinobi standing before him.

Sweat-dropping at the last remark, Minato turned towards the Kyūbi and shouted, "Alright, let's go!" Channeling a large amount of chakra, he teleported to a kunai that was conveniently left close to the Kyuubi, before jumping and grabbing onto the tailed beast and teleporting them both to where the safe house that Kushina and their children were located was. Meanwhile, both Gamaken and Gamabunta channeled chakra to their legs and jumped straight into the air towards the safe house's location, with Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Hiruzen riding on their backs.

When Minato arrived with the Kyūbi in tow, he immediately let go and erected a barrier around his family. This was a good call, as the Kyūbi's tails came crashing down against the barrier, destroying the safe house in the process. Throwing one of his tri-pronged kunai a good distance away, he teleported Kushina and their children away from the rampaging tailed beast.

"Minato! Why did you bring the Kyūbi here of all places?!" Kushina yelled at Minato while holding their children close to her.

"Sorry dear, but I need to reseal the Kyūbi. I'm going to need your help in holding the bijuu down and suppressing its chakra so that Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Tsunade and I can do the seal." Minato pleaded while keeping a close eye on the Kyūbi.

"Ok but who are you going to seal it into?" Kushina asked as her **Kongō Fūsa** manifested from her body and wrapped around the Kyūbi's body parts, effectively holding the tailed beast in place, unable to do anything except roar in anger as it attempted to break out of the chains.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to seal it into one of our children." Minato said as he picked up one of the babies out of Kushina's arms before taking off his haori and placing the child on top of it. Seeing Kushina's indignant expression, Minato quickly tried to explain his reasoning. "I'm sorry, but this has to be done. How could I live with myself knowing that I condemned someone else's child to a life full of misery when I wasn't willing to use my own child?"

A crash from behind Minato was heard, and he turned around to see Gamaken and Gamabunta land with the three kage-level ninja jumping down to land besides them. "Alright brat, we ready?" Tsunade asked. Hiruzen's staff quickly transformed back into Enma, seeing as he wasn't going to be needed for this next part.

"Just about. Once I'm finished with the hand seals, each of you will grab a corner of the sealing array before we extend it over the bijuu. Tsunade, seeing you and Hiruzen have near perfect chakra control, should be able to take ahold of the array easily. Jiraiya, with your sealing knowledge, this shouldn't be hard for you either. Our partners can help guard us and keep the Kyūbi restrained with Kushina. Any questions?" Seeing everyone shake their heads, Minato flexed his fingers in preparation of what was to come. "Then let's begin."

Going through a long series of hand seals, a golden sealing array appeared in his hands. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Hiruzen each grabbed a corner of the seal before moving slowly towards the other sides of the Kyūbi. Gamaken, Gamabunta and Enma split up to accompany them to their destinations. A long and harrowing walk, but they eventually made it. Once he confirmed that everyone was in position, Minato finished the hand seals and shouted, " **Hakke no Fūin Shiki!** " and placed his end of the sealing formula onto the baby's stomach. The Kyūbi could do nothing as it was sucked into the baby and the seal appeared on the baby's stomach.

However, due to the amount of chakra the Kyūbi let off trying to escape the chains, the leftover chakra in the air began to be sucked into the seal. Panicking, Minato quickly placed the seal filled with extra demonic chakra on a second baby's stomach. This repeated itself three times until all of the bijuu chakra in the air was gone. All four babies and Kushina had the same seal on their stomachs, though only one of them was the real jinchūriki, the rest being pseudo ones. All four babies were unconscious, with only Kushina looking like she was in an ok condition, if her fussing were any indication of the situation.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Hiruzen walked over to the family, fatigue clearly showing on their faces. The summons followed them, and plopped down onto the ground, glad that the crisis was finally over. As Tsunade began running a diagnostic jutsu over Kushina to make sure she was alright after the birth, Hiruzen questioned Minato on the situation. "Is the seal good and steady now? I can't imagine an infant being able to hold a being of such power."

"Yes, the seals are fine." At Jiraiya and Hiruzen's questioning gazes, Minato elaborated, "The seal began sucking up all the excess chakra, and so I had to make the other three children and Kushina psuedo-jinchūrikis. By my estimate, the other three should be able to only go up to three-tails when using the bijuu chakra, but only time will tell whether that will be true or not. We're lucky Kushina's **Kongō Fūsa** had suppressing qualities, or else the children may not have been able to take the potency of the beast's chakra."

As the two let out a sigh of relief, all three males turned to look at the others, a warm feeling of happiness welling up within their hearts. Although Hiruzen's happiness was tempered by the realization that Biwako must have died in the culprit's attack. The summons, seeing that the situation was resolved, returned to their ancestral homes with the rest of their clan. All in all this looked like a happy family and a warm ending.

Although something in the back of all their minds told them that something was missing from the equation.

* * *

A vortex appeared in a tree several hundred feet away from the carnage as the masked man teleported in from seemingly nowhere. He had discarded the cloak that had Minato's **Hiraishin** formula on it, leaving himself with just his mask and black mesh armor over a black vest. Watching the kage-level ninja and their children together off in the distance, he came to the conclusion that the Kyūbi had been resealed into one of the children, though he couldn't tell who as the distance between them was too great for him to overhear their conversation, and he didn't want to move in any closer for fear of being caught by one of them.

Gritting his teeth in frustration that his plan failed, he contemplated his options from there. 'Damn that Namikaze. If it wasn't for him, there would have at least been some success in plan. I'll have to rely on the Akatsuki in Amegakure to achieve my ambitions now.' Looking back at the happy family, he decided that having the last laugh would be worth it in the end.

Luckily for him the Konoha ninja and the summons were too fatigued and weren't paying attention, or else his plan wouldn't have worked at all. Messing around with their memories so that they wouldn't remember who the identity of the real jinchūriki was, the masked man cast his genjutsu on them.

" **Kotoamatsukami**."

* * *

Bijūdama - Tailed Beast Bomb

Hakke no Fūin Shiki - Eight Trigrams Sealing Style

Henge: Kongōnyoi - Transformation: Adamantine Staff

Hiraishin - Flying Thunder God

Hiraishin: Dōrai - Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder

Hiraishin: Ni no Dan - Flying Thunder God: Second Step

Kamui - Authority of the Gods

Keiyaku Fūin - Contract Seal

Kongō Fūsa - Adamantine Sealing Chains

Kotoamatsukami - Distinguished Heavenly Gods

Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning Technique

Rasengan - Spiralling Sphere

* * *

Hello. This is my first fanfic that I have ever written, so please bear with me as we go about the wonderful journey of Naruto within our imaginations.

After spending a long time reading fanfics by various authors, some good and some bad, I decided that it was time for me to write one of my own. I had all these crazy what-if theories going around in my head pertaining to the story, and I'm sure many of you who are reading this have had this occur to you too. This was a way for me to give back to the community of fanfiction as well as get these ideas down onto paper (well, the internet in this case). I also think of myself as a pretty bad writer, so putting up my writings out on a forum where people could review and give me feedback was an incentive to help me improve my writing ability.

Many of the fanfics that I have read will most likely influence this story, but there are so many of them that if I begin listing them, I think I'll miss some and then they won't get the recognition they deserve. If enough people wish for it, I can try listing one story that I enjoyed after each chapter and its author, and go from there.

A lot of the information I use in this story, I also get from the official Naruto wikia page, so if you want any information on something that I wrote about, that would be your first place to look.

Any questions, personal thoughts and such will be answered here down below the chapter, so that those who aren't interested in this won't have to skip through it at the beginning.

Feel free to leave a review or send a PM if you have any questions or want to talk about something.

Thank you for reading. I hope you will visit again.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a fan-made story. All rights of Naruto go to Masashi Kishimoto.

 **The Early Years**

 _(4 Years Later)_

A clear sky shone above the village of Konoha. The air was filled with laughter, and everywhere you turned people were happily living their lives. The village was recovering nicely ever since the Kyūbi attack four years ago. Though many lives were lost during the attack, the people of the Village Hidden in the Leaves seem to have managed to move on with their lives from the devastating incident.

A happy cry could be heard from one specific household as four children run around their yard playing a game of tag. The Uzumaki-Namikaze family household, with the addition of the quadruplets, had become a much livelier place to live in. The children always needed an outlet for the energy that they seemed to possess in bountiful quantities, and they could never sit still for too long. They always seemed to be able to spread their happiness to the people around them.

"Yarrr!" Menma cried as he ran towards Naomi, his arms making a grabbing motion at his sister. Inheriting his father's bright blue eyes, as well as having his blonde hair, Menma appeared to be a mini-Minato to those around him. However, his actions, always charging head first into a situation and never thinking about the consequences afterwards, showed a personality similar to Kushina's when she was younger.

Squealing, Naomi scurried around the yard, managing to stay just out of reach of Menma's hands. With her bright blue eyes and blonde hair with streaks of red, Naomi looked like a beacon of happiness to those around her. It was near impossible to not smile whenever she was around.

Standing off to the side watching and waiting to see if Menma would go after them were Natsumi and Naruto. Natsumi, inheriting Kushina's violet eyes and Minato's blonde hair, was more subdued than her sister and more cautious than her brother. Her movements showed that she knew how to hold herself back when needed, but her eyes shined with excitement as she slowly maneuvered herself to a position facing Menma's back.

Naruto, with his red hair and violet eyes, was by far the most calm and level-headed child of the four. His cool demeanor and attentiveness made him seem much more mature than he appeared to be. His eyes kept a sharp eye out for details that many civilians would overlook, and behind his cool exterior was a mind more intellectual than any other four-year old. Standing in place keeping an eye on Menma, only a small portion of Naruto's movement was wasted as he kept track of his brother's movements across the yard.

Tending to a small garden by the house, Kushina smiled as she listened to her children's laughter from their playing in the front yard. As she diligently pulled out weeds, Kushina thought back to how her family got to where it is today from four years ago.

After the Kyūbi attack, Minato had announced to Konoha that the Kyūbi had been defeated by the five S-ranked shinobi. The civilians had celebrated at the announcement, but it was clear to him that the shinobi knew something was up. As a shinobi, a threat was never completely dealt with unless the problem was dead, as the resolved issue could always come up again at a later date. Although no one ever brought it up, it was clear some of the older shinobi were suspicious as to what had happened to the Kyūbi.

They had held a memorial service for the fallen, which was a somber event. The revelation that the Yondaime Hokage's children had been born during that time helped to raise the mood a little, a reminder that although lives may be taken away, there would always be new lives joining their family.

As a tribute to the fallen and to rejoice that the Kyūbi was defeated, the civilian council proposed to hold a festival every year on the day of the attack. This idea was met with the full support of the ninja council, as they felt that the shinobi under the village needed a day off every now and then. Being serious and on guard all the time could really take a toll on a person's mentality.

'In fact, tonight will be the festival,' Kushina thought to herself as she looked over at her children. She watched as Menma tackled Naomi while cackling loudly, tickling her all over her body. Kushina couldn't help but smile as Naomi shrieked with laughter, trying to escape Menma's assault, while Natsumi and Naruto laughed at their sister's predicament.

Kushina sighed as she stood up. 'We should probably get ready for the festival. We'll be meeting the other clan heads, and we might as well look good for the occasion.' "Kids, let's go back inside now." At the questionable expressions shown on all of her kids' faces, she elaborated, "We need to get ourselves ready for the party at the Hyūga compound tonight." Kushina chuckled as she watched Menma and Naomi grumble to themselves about how they didn't need a bath as they walked over. Natsumi quickly moved to stand beside Kushina, and Naruto snickered as he listened to his two complaining siblings while slowly walking in behind them. After all, doesn't every action have a good reason behind it?

* * *

While every action does have a reason, they are not necessarily good ones worth committing to. Spending half an hour getting a bath from your mother while your other three siblings are splashing around, making a bigger mess of things, isn't enjoyable. Then using an hour to get dressed in these fancy kimonos that you'll probably never wear again is enough to make you go crazy.

'This is definitely not worth it,' Naruto decided as he waited for his mother and his siblings to be done changing. Wearing a dark blue kimono, Naruto was the first one to be finished getting dressed. Thinking as he stood there, he wondered why they had to go through the effort of dressing up and looking nice. 'We might be meeting some important people that tou-san wouldn't let us meet before.'

The first one to appear downstairs was Menma. Wearing a dark red kimono, the moment he walked over to where Naruto was he started complaining. "Naru-nii, why do we have to wear these clothes? They suck."

"I don't know Menma-otouto, maybe kaa-chan will tell us. I don't like these clothes either." Naruto replied, trying to not mess up the kimono. Menma, having no such inhibitions, shifted his kimono around until he was able to move comfortably.

After another 10 minutes of listening to Menma's whining, Kushina, Naomi and Natsumi all arrive downstairs together. Upon seeing Menma's attire, Kushina immediately went over to him and began straightening his kimono back out. "Kaa-chan!" Menma immediately spoke up.

"Menma-kun, I told you to keep your kimono on neatly, not mess it around. If you had listened to what I said earlier, I wouldn't have to be fixing your kimono right now." Kushina admonished as she fussed over her son. While this exchange is going on, Natsumi and Naomi walked over to talk to Naruto.

"Naruto-nii, how do I look?" Naomi asked the moment she reached Naruto. Natsumi, following Naomi over to where Naruto stood, looked over at Naruto as she awaited his response.

"You look amazing, both of you!" Naruto exclaimed. Naomi, wearing a yellow kimono matching her sunny personality, flashed Naruto a wide smile as she spun herself around, showing off her kimono to her brother. Natsumi, wearing a light blue kimono, simply grinned back at him.

"Thanks, Naruto-nii-san. You look great too." Natsumi replied.

"Do you think there will be any other kids at the party?" Naomi asked.

"Probably." Naruto shrugged as he spoke. "I don't think the other mommies and daddies would leave their babies at home while they went out to have fun. I just hope they will be our friends." Naomi and Natsumi nodded in agreement at his statement.

"Alright kids, let's go." Kushina said as she stood up from where she was previously. As Naruto, Naomi and Natsumi turned to look at her, they could see Menma standing off to the side, with an annoyed look on his face. "We need to head to the party now. It will be starting soon."

Naomi cheered as she rushed towards the door, with Naruto following at a more sedate pace and Menma trudging along behind them. "But what about tou-san?" Natsumi asked. Surely they wouldn't leave without him, would they?

"Don't worry, Natsumi-chan. Your tou-san will be meeting up with us at the party after he leaves the office. He'll be there." 'He'd better be.' Kushina thought to herself as she gently lead Natsumi towards the door.

* * *

The Uzumaki-Namikaze family could see many high-ranking members of the other clans entering the Hyūga estate as they approach the entrance to the Hyūga clan compound. Menma and Naomi were walking out front, trying to walk in a calm manner, though anyone who was paying attention could see them bouncing on the balls of their feet. Kushina walked more slowly behind the two excitable children, with Natsumi following while holding onto Kushina's hand, and Naruto standing on her other side. All five family members sported some sort of happy expression, whether it be a large smile as shown on Naomi's face, or a small smile on Naruto's face.

As they came up to the entrance of the compound, Kushina could see a round woman coming up to greet them. This was Hitomi Hyūga, wife to the Hyūga clan head Hiashi Hyūga, and one of Kushina's genin teammates. "Welcome, Kushina-chan."

"Hitomi-chan! How are you?" Kushina exclaimed as she let go of Natsumi's hand to embrace her longtime friend and former teammate.

"I'm doing well. I see you've finally brought your children out to the festival. Afraid they might pick up your penchant for pranking?" Hitomi teased as she let go of Kushina and took a good look at her children. "Wow, they've all grown since the last time I saw them."

Kushina beamed proudly. "Of course, they're my children after all. How have yours been doing, by the way?"

"Well Hinata's been well. She's inside the compound with the other children at the moment. My second child has been doing fine too. Tsunade-sama says the pregnancy has been going well, and the baby will be born in a couple of months." Hitomi said while lovingly patting her stomach.

"That's good." Out of the corner of her eye, Kushina saw Menma, Naomi and Natsumi looking at the two mothers in confusion, while Naruto simply narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Hyūga clan head's wife thoughtfully. "What's wrong, dears?"

Menma, Naomi and Natsumi looked at each other before looking back towards the two adults as they eyes stayed on them. Naomi finally asked, "Umm, kaa-chan who is this lady?"

"Now don't be rude Naomi-chan, she has a name. This is Hitomi Hyūga, the wife to the clan head of the Hyūga clan. She was once my teammate, you know? That's why we know each other so well," Kushina explained.

Hitomi stepped forward to stand in front of the quadruplets. "It's nice to meet you all. You can call me Hitomi." Turning towards Kushina, she stated, "We should head in now. The party should have already started by now."

Nodding in agreement, Kushina turned towards the four Uzumaki-Namikaze children and motioned for them to follow as they entered the compound. Immediately upon entering the courtyard, Kushina could see many of the adults standing near the deck where all of the food and eating utensils were. The children were together near the center of the courtyard, and those who were either too old to consider themselves a child or too young to understand what the adults were talking about were standing in small groups around the edge of the yard.

Kushina saw that Hitomi was walking over to the deck, so she turned towards her children and said, "Kids, you should go and make some new friends with those boys and girls over there." She motioned over towards the center of the yard. "If you need me, I'll be over with the other parents." After getting a nod of confirmation from the four, Kushina turned to follow Hitomi, who had struck up a conversation with the others.

Naruto, Menma, Naomi and Natsumi watched as Kushina walked away before turning to look at each other. After an awkward silence of a couple of seconds passed, a sigh could be heard from Naruto as he began walking towards the group of children. Menma, Naomi and Natsumi, after standing still for a moment longer, quickly broke out of their stupor and ran to catch up to Naruto.

As they approached the group of children, Naomi quickly ran up and shouted, "Hi guys!" The kids, startled by the sudden appearance of the girl, all turned to look at her as she introduced herself to them. "I'm Naomi Namikaze! These are my brothers, Menma and Naruto, and my sister Natsumi!"

"Hey." "Hello." Menma and Natsumi both said respectively to the others. Naruto simply gave them a nod as he observed each one.

After a couple moments of silence, one of the children, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, who wore a purple kimono with the Yamanaka clan symbol spoke up. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"Troublesome," a dark-haired boy with his hair tied back said. Being the Nara clan heir, he was wearing a grey kimono with the Nara clan emblem on the back. "I'm Shikamaru Nara and this is my best friend Chōji Akimichi." The Akimichi clan heir was a plump brown-haired boy with swirls on both of his cheeks. He was sitting next to Shikamaru while wearing a brown kimono with the Akimichi clan symbol on the back. He waved one hand in greeting, while his other hand held a bag of chips in them.

"Hey there, I'm Kiba Inuzuka." A brown-haired boy with triangles on his cheeks wearing a dark kimono spoke next. As one of the Inuzuka clan heirs, he had somewhat of a feral look to his face, despite being dressed up in formal wear.

"Greetings. My name is Shino Aburame." This came from a brown-haired boy wearing shades over his eyes. He had on a light gray kimono with the Aburame clan crest on the back. The Aburame clan heir, despite his age, held a stoic position as he addressed the four Uzumaki-Namikaze children.

"Hello, I'm Hinata Hyūga." A girl with short blue hair and lavender-colored eyes and dressed in a white kimono greeted them in a nervous tone. This was the Hyūga clan heiress. She had a Hyūga clan crest on a pendant that was wrapped around her wrist.

After the introductions, a short awkward silence overcame the group of children before they went back to what they were doing before. Kiba and Menma started up a game of tag; Natsumi and Naomi began talking to Ino and Hinata; and Naruto joined Shikamaru, Chōji and Shino as they sat watching the others.

* * *

"Your children have grown up beautifully Kushina-chan," Hitomi said to Kushina as they walked over to where the other adults were. Due to the nature of this gathering, the only people that were present were the clan heads and their immediate family, as well as important figures in Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was one of these people, as he could be seen chatting with Minato Namikaze and Hiashi Hyūga by one of the tables on the deck. "Ah, Kushina-chan, welcome." Hiruzen exclaimed as he took notice of Kushina and Hitomi approaching them. Minato's expression brightened as he saw his wife and walked towards her, giving Kushina a kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

Minato was dressed in his signature outfit, with his flak jacket and haori. Although his hitai-ate was missing from the attire, his overall appearance hadn't changed much over the past four years.

"Greetings Kushina-san," Hiashi stated as he made his way over to the two women. Dressed in plain white robes, as he walked with his body in a proper posture he gave off the image of a perfect Hyūga.

"Ah, Kushina-chan. How have you been?" asked Hiruzen. He was dressed in simple civilian clothing, having decided to dress plainly for the occasion.

"Hiashi-san, Hiruzen-sama, I've well." Kushina replied politely after returning a greeting to Minato. Hiruzen was one of the only people who Kushina addressed in a respectful manner, the memories of when she was an active kunoichi still ingrained within her.

"That's good to hear," Hiruzen said with a warm smile, which Kushina returned happily.

"Now the only group that hasn't showed up yet are the Uchihas." Hiashi stated as he looked around in case he missed their entrance.

"Knowing Fugaku, he will try to arrive late enough that everyone will notice, but early enough to not miss out on the main event." Hiruzen said with a chuckle.

"Indeed." Hitomi said with a hint of mirth in her tone.

"Speaking of the Uchihas…" Everyone turned to look at Minato when he said that. "Here they are now." Turning to look towards the entrance of the clan compound, they could all see the Uchiha clan head Fugaku Uchiha, his wife Mikoto Uchiha, and their sons and nephew walk in through the front gate.

As Fugaku and Mikoto separated from the children and made their way towards the porch, they heard a voice shout towards them. "Hey Mikoto-chan, Fugaku-san!" shouted Kushina.

As the two Uchiha turned and approached the small gathering, Hiashi-san stepped forward and gave a short bow towards them. "Fugaku-san, Mikoto-san, welcome to our home."

"Yes, we hope you and your children enjoy your time here," Hitomi said as she moved to stand beside her husband.

"Thank you for inviting us, Hiashi-san, Hitomi-san." Fugaku replied.

"It's good to see you again, Hitomi-chan." Mikoto exclaimed. "And it's good to see you out of the house Kushina-chan. You seem to have grown a bit chubby during your time off."

"I'll have you know I can still kick your ass Mikoto-chan! It's not like you've been an active shinobi either all this time." Kushina retorted in good humor. She and Mikoto had been best friends and rivals ever since they were Genin, which was clearly evident with the way the two were facing each other, seemingly butting heads with one another. Along with Hitomi, they had been the best kunoichi of their generation, and the pressure given off by the two, despite how friendly they really were with one another, showed that they were still powerful in their own right.

"Well things certainly are heating up around here," Minato laughed awkwardly as he slowly inched away from the two kunoichi.

"Indeed," Hiashi calmly said as he and Hitomi both moved to stand besides Hiruzen, who was looking at the entire event with an amused expression.

"How have your children been, Minato? Mikoto-chan is always talking about bringing little Sasuke-kun over to play or inviting your children to come over." Fugaku asked.

"They're growing fine. I wouldn't be opposed to having young Sasuke-kun over. If anything, it would be a good experience for them. Having trusted friends and allies is always a good thing in my books, and it would do to serve them well." Minato replied, before turning towards the two Hyūgas. "Would you like to bring young Hinata-chan over as well, Hiashi-san, Hitomi-san?"

"I can definitely bring Hinata-chan over sometime. She's still a bit shy around others, so it would be good for her to make more friends." Hitomi said.

"Yes, since she will be the future clan head, it will be vital for her to get to know others, and the sooner it can be done, the better." Hiashi said.

"Anyways, the main event will be starting soon, will it not?" Fugaku queried, with Hiashi nodding in response to his question.

"Well, let's go join the others for a bit before we leave for the festival," Hiruzen chuckled as he turned and began to walk towards where the rest of the clan heads were. Minato, Hiashi, and Fugaku followed, with Kushina, Mikoto and Hitomi bringing up the rear.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha watched as his mother and father walk away to where the other adults were before turning to tug on his older brother's hand. In his mind, if there were anyone who would know what to do in this kind of situation, it would be his amazing nii-san.

Itachi Uchiha could only sigh at the situation he was put in. Pronounced a prodigious shinobi by the age of 7 when he graduated from the academy. At age 9 he was already considered to be ready to take the Chūnin exams by his jōnin-sensei. There was no doubt in any Uchiha's minds that Itachi would one day become the strongest shinobi in the clan.

That aside, his talent as a shinobi would not help him get past his current predicament. Ignoring his cousin Shisui Uchiha, who was standing off to the side trying to muffle his amusement at the situation, Itachi sighed as he started to walk towards the group of children playing in the middle of the courtyard. "Come along now, Sasuke-otouto. Why don't we go and meet the other kids?"

As Sasuke dutifully followed his brother, while Shisui walked on Sasuke's other side with a bemused expression on his face, Sasuke asked Itachi, "Nii-san, why do we have to go to those people?"

"It's important for you to make friends outside the clan, Sasuke-otouto. These friends will one day become your comrades who will help protect your back while you protect theirs. By making friends early on, you will be able to surround yourself with friends that you can trust when you finally become a shinobi." Itachi answered.

Sasuke just dumbly nodded at his brother's explanation, something both Itachi and Shisui picked up on. Hearing a chuckle escape from Shisui's mouth, Itachi sighed before once again speaking, "Hopefully, they are going to be your friends."

A look of comprehension appeared on Sasuke's face as he nodded and began walking with greater vigor than before. Itachi could only wonder why he was born more mature than the other children.

As they moved closer and closer, the three Uchihas could see the children turn to look at them, the two boys running around slowing to stop as they stared at them. An eerie silence took ahold of the area as the children stopped what they were doing to stare at the newcomers.

That silence was broken by an exuberant Naomi who bounded up to the three Uchihas. "Hi! I'm Naomi Namikaze, who are you?"

"My name is Itachi Uchiha." Itachi let off a small smile as he gently pushed Sasuke forward. "This is my little brother, Sasuke." Sasuke brought one hand up to wave at the other children, but kept his other hand securely fastened around Itachi's.

Stepping forward, Shisui produced as much of an aura as he could to make himself seem powerful as he introduced himself to the clan heirs. "I'm Shisui Uchiha, and it's nice to meet you all." At 12 years old, Shisui was already acknowledged as one of the Uchiha clan's rising stars. Already being a chūnin, he wore a simple black shirt and black pants with his attire, along with his hitai-ate which was securely fastened around his forehead.

The rest of the children quickly introduced themselves to the three, each with their own unique introduction, with each of the three building their own opinions on each clan heir in front of them. Kiba, Menma and Ino were loud and forward with their actions; Naomi was extremely outgoing, with Hinata seeming to be pretty shy; Naruto and Shikamaru, despite looking lazy, were both very perceptive and intelligent, though only Itachi and Shisui could pick up on the latter; and Natsumi and Chōji were both laid back and enjoying themselves.

As the children all settled down, Itachi asked, "So what are you all doing right now?"

Looking at each other as they all waited for someone to say something, the children soon all turned towards the Uchihas, and most of them responded with a "We don't know!" The three Uchihas mentally face-faulted as they stared at the kids in disbelief.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Sasuke frowned. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"We've just been sitting and here talking while waiting for something to happen. We don't know what's going on." Explained Ino. "Well, Kiba and Menma have been chasing each other, if that's what you mean."

Itachi unconsciously nodded at her statement. Being seen as too young by his parents too often for his liking, he could understand why they wouldn't know the details to the schedule.

A shout calling for his and Shisui's names brought Itachi out of his thoughts, as he looked up to see his friend Hana Inuzuka motioning them over to where a group of kids their age we standing together with a wave of her hand, her three puppies sitting on the ground next to her. Turning back towards the group of four year olds, Itachi said, "Shisui and I are going to speak with our friends. Sasuke-otouto. Play nice, okay?"

"Okay nii-san." Sasuke responded as he watched Itachi walk towards the female Inuzuka.

"It was nice meeting you all." Shisui said as he began to follow Itachi. For a moment, however, he stopped as he concentrated on Naruto, who was sitting on the ground with an amused smirk on his face. 'That one… is interesting.' Shisui thought to himself before following Itachi.

Sasuke turned to look back at the rest of the clan heirs. "So what do we do now?" All of the kids shrugged at the question.

Suddenly, they all heard a shout calling for their attention. Turning their heads towards the deck, they could see the adults had lined up alongside each other, and that one of the hosts had moved forward and started talking. Realizing that whatever they were going to do was about to start, they all quieted down and listened as the Hyūga clan head began to speak.

* * *

 _(The next day)_

"Today we'll be starting your training as shinobi!" Kushina shouted as she pumped her fist into the air. Of course she would be excited; her babies would be taking their first steps on the road to being a shinobi, just like her.

They were standing out in the back of the property, where a small, private training area fortified with seals was. It was pretty early in the morning for a four year old, the same time a genin would be getting up and ready for the day. Although Kushina knew this would be tiring on her children when starting out, it would help them grow used to the routine if they were going to become shinobi.

The four drowsy children, who had literally just rolled out of bed and had breakfast, all looked at her in confusion, until the gravity of what she had said set in. Naruto straightened up in shock, before a grin broke out on his face. Natsumi gave off a small cheer as a big smile spread across her face. Menma and Naomi both had no reservations about cheering loudly as they imagined themselves as the amazing people they knew their father and mother were.

Kushina smiled at the enthusiasm the four of them were showing. She could still remember the day she started her training, and her reaction hadn't been all that different.

"Kaa-chan, what will we be learning first?" Naruto asked once everyone calmed down a bit. Naomi, Natsumi and Menma all turned towards Kushina and leaned in, eager to hear what her answer was going to be.

"Since you are all just beginning your training, we'll be starting with the basics. We'll begin with kunai and shuriken throwing and handling, followed by unlocking your chakra for today. After lunch, I'll teach you calligraphy."

"Calligraphy? What's that?" Menma asked.

"It's writing. It's important to know how to read and write, and you need it to learn fūinjutsu, our clan's specialty." Kushina replied.

"Fūinjutsu?" Natsumi asked.

"Fūinjutsu, or sealing techniques, is a field of jutsus where normally has one sealing an object within another object. However, the Uzumaki clan members took this art to a level of its own. With fūinjutsu, you can accomplish pretty much anything, so long as you put your mind to it. In fact, our clan became so feared for our fūinjutsu techniques that our village was targeted and destroyed near the end of the Second Shinobi World War." A sad tone entered Kushina's voice near the end of her explanation.

"But I want to learn how to do strong jutsus! Why do we have to do all this boring stuff?" Naomi whined.

Kushina chuckled. "I was just like you when I was younger, Naomi-chan. All I wanted to learn were big and flashy techniques. But it's important to learn the basics, because they will help you master the harder techniques easier. They can also help save your life if you're in a bind."

Seeing all of her children nod at her statement, Kushina then asked, "Now, you've all brought the ninja hip pouches you got as presents, correct?" Once again, all four of them nod at the question. "Okay, take out the practice shuriken we put in there. We're going to learn how to throw them first."

Once they had all taken out some of the shuriken and placed their pouches back onto the ground, Kushina said, "Now, I'm not one to lecture people on how to perform a technique, so I'll demonstrate it to you first. See those targets over there?" Pointing across the clearing of the training field, where five targets were set up. As the four looked at the targets, Kushina said, "I want you to throw your shuriken like this." Pulling a shuriken out from seemingly nowhere, Kushina threw her shuriken at one of the targets, where it flew and hit the bullseye.

Turning back to her children, who were all staring at her in awe, some more openly than others, she said, "I want you all to do the same thing I did. I don't expect you to get it on the first try, but I will be around to help you if it looks like you need it. Practice is the most important thing in getting this skill right." Seeing her children acknowledge her statement, Kushina cheered as she once again pumped a fist into the air, "Now go out there and throw your shuriken!"

With Menma and Naomi cheering along, and Natsumi and Naruto both having determined but excited expressions on their faces, the four Uzumaki-Namikaze kids all ran forward and threw shurikens at the target. Kushina's large smile soon fell as she saw all the shurikens miss the target. Naomi's shuriken was the farthest off, it having gone straight over the target and landing somewhere near the edge of the training ground. Natsumi's wasn't much better, with it landing near the foot of the target. Naruto's shuriken was closer, landing on the log that the target was attached to. Surprisingly, Menma's was the closest, with his clipping the side of his target.

Kushina could only shake her head at the sight of her downtrodden children. "This is going to take a while."

* * *

Shuriken laid scattered across the entire Uzumaki-Namikaze household's training ground. If someone entered, the first thing they'd see is a bunch of shuriken lying on the ground by four of the five targets set up against one side of the training area, with the fifth target littered with shuriken all across the target area and the log the target was attached to.

On the other side of the clearing he or she could've seen four children lying on the ground in different positions panting as they stared at their handiwork. Their trainer and mother, Kushina, could also be seen, but with a much happier smile on her face.

'Yes! My aim with the shuriken is still good, even after all that time off caring for my babies.' Kushina thought to herself, pleased by the amount of shurikens she threw that hit the target. Having spent so much time caring for her four children left her dull, and she was looking to get back into shape at every opportunity possible.

Turning to look at her kids, she could see that all of them were feeling quite tired from the exercise, she said, "Alright, that's enough shuriken practice for one day." All at once the four collapsed completely onto the ground, panting as they tried to recover from the strenuous exercise they had been working on. Kushina, seeing them all sprawled out across the ground, couldn't help but smile. "You all did an amazing job on your first day." She could see Menma and Naomi with large grins on their faces as they heard the compliment, while Naruto and Natsumi's were a bit more subdued, but still happy.

Kushina sat down onto the ground as well as she watched the four of them slowly begin to sit up as they caught their breath. Once she saw that they were all sitting up and facing her, Kushina said, "Before we all go inside for lunch, we're going to be unlocking your chakra."

"Really?" Naomi asked, wide-eyed at the prospect.

"Yes. Chakra is a very important tool for a shinobi, so it's important that you are able to use and control it as soon as possible." Kushina replied.

Cheers could be heard from two of the four children, somehow losing their fatigue in their excitement. "Quite." Kushina spoke in a commanding tone. As the two overjoyed children calmed down, she began to speak.

"Now chakra, as we know it, is a form of energy that runs throughout our bodies. It is composed of a person's spiritual energy and their physical energy mixed together. A person's spiritual energy comes from his or mind's consciousness, while a person's physical energy comes from the cells within a person's body. They are produced by the 'chakra coils' inside a person's body. Each person has chakra within their bodies, but usually only shinobi are able to consciously use theirs. Being Uzumakis, we naturally have a large amount of chakra within our own bodies." Kushina said the last part with pride, before her tone turned serious. "However, if you run out of chakra within your body, you will most certainly die."

The four children all unconsciously shivered at the thought, and swore to never let that happen to themselves.

"However," Kushina's voice brought their attention back to her, "We need to unlock your chakra first. To do that, you will first want to form the ram seal while sitting down." Forming the hand seal with her own hands, she showed it to the children so that they could perform it themselves. "From here, you want to close your eyes and try to search your body for a warm source of energy, which should be your chakra. Pull on that warmth, and eventually it should come rushing all out."

Kushina watched as the four closed their eyes and concentrated on trying to unleash their chakra. She couldn't help but feel proud as she watched them continue to take their first steps on the path of a shinobi.

Several minutes passed as she patiently waited for something to happen. Although when something did happen, it wasn't what she expected.

A growl suddenly sounded from Menma, and the silence of the training ground led it to be heard loud and clear by everyone. Naomi and Natsumi's eyes shot open as they turned to look at the source of the noise, while Kushina simply turned her head to look at her youngest son. Only Naruto was able to maintain his focus throughout that distraction.

"Oops," Menma said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head before bringing his hands back up into a ram seal to continue. Giggles could be heard from his two sisters, which only heightened his embarrassment, while Kushina simply smiled.

All of a sudden, warm energy could be felt coming from Naruto's direction as he finally managed to access his chakra. All three of his siblings turned to look and stare at him in awe as waves of bright blue chakra seems to emanate off of him. Kushina's expression, on the other hand, was one of shock, as she saw the amount of chakra coming off of him. 'I didn't even have as much chakra as Naruto has now when I was his age.' They all stared at him as the glow died down, before Naruto suddenly fell onto his back.

As Kushina got up and went over to check on her eldest son, Natsumi tentatively asked, "Kaa-chan, is Naruto-nii-san going to be alright?"

"Yes Natsumi-chan, Naruto-kun will be fine. He's just tired, after unlocking his chakra. Why don't you three continue trying to unlock your chakra while I go and bring Naruto-kun back inside?" Kushina asked as she picked Naruto up gently.

"Okay kaa-chan." The three of them chorused before returning to their task at hand.

As Kushina brought Naruto back into the house and went back to the training ground, she thought to herself, 'They're all growing up so fast, Minato and I should leave some time for them to continue to play as kids. We don't want them to grow up too fast after all.' As she re-entered the training ground, she could see bright blue glows of chakra coming off of Menma, Naomi and Natsumi as each one of them unlocked their chakra, before they all collapsed onto their backs. As Kushina walked over to scoop Naomi and Natsumi into her arms, and formed a cradle-like structure with her **Kongō Fūsa** to carry Menma, the only thoughts going through her mind as she carried them all back inside were 'Well done.'

* * *

"Kaa-chan, can you help me?"

"Of course, Natsumi-chan!" Kushina said as she rose from her position at the table to walk over to where Natsumi was sitting. The four Uzumaki-Namikaze children had been working on learning their characters for a few hours, and for the most part had been able to write all of the kanji down legibly. Only a few of them they had some trouble getting perfect, but you couldn't exactly expect them to get everything right on the first try.

Menma and Naomi had quickly lost interest in calligraphy, and had finally been let out after they had been completed their writing practice for a few hours. They were currently playing outside, enjoying what was left of the day to themselves.

'Menma and Naomi will probably never use fūinjutsu in combat,' Kushina surmised as she began guiding Natsumi through the basic strokes of each kanji with a brush. 'Natsumi and Naruto on the other hand…'

Looking at Natsumi in front of her, who was diligently copying down each character she had shown her, Kushina could see that fūinjutsu was a topic that interested her greatly, and that she wanted to learn it at soon as possible.

And Naruto…

Naruto had quickly learned the different kanji, and had wanted to try and start reading. Kushina had to go and get one of the beginner books on chakra control for him from their family library. Even now, as Kushina looked over to the living room area of their home, where Naruto was sitting while trying to read, she could only wonder in awe at his learning ability.

'It probably won't be too long before Naruto will start learning the theory behind basic fūinjutsu. His ability to learn is astounding. If he continues to learn at this rate, he'll definitely end up passing both Minato and I in fūinjutsu.'

* * *

 _(A few hours later)_

Naruto sat against a tree as he watched his siblings running around with the other children they had met the previous day. After they had finished their calligraphy practice, they had gone to a nearby park for the rest of the day, where they had met up with the other clan heirs. Only the Uchiha clan heir was missing, though Ino had brought along a pink haired friend of hers by the name of Sakura Haruno, whose parents were apparently both retired chūnin level shinobi.

Although normally Naruto would have joined his brother and sisters in whatever game they were playing, today he wanted to do something a bit different. Seeing his siblings start up a game with their new friends, Naruto thought back to the day before after they had all met each other.

After the Hyūga clan head's speech, they had enjoyed a large feast together. Naruto had sat with the rest of the kids that were his age, while the adults and the older kids each had their own tables to sit at. Throughout the meal, various people they didn't know had gone up to the quadruplets and wished them a happy birthday. Naruto had took it in stride, and chalked them up to being people his parents knew.

After the dinner, they had all gone out to enjoy the Kyūbi festival together. The older kids had gone with them, while the parents had all gone off somewhere else. They had been joined by some of the civilian kids, including Sakura, and had gone to try out many of the stands that were set up within the streets of Konoha. For the most part, they had been treated with respect and friendliness by the civilians and off-duty shinobi, although a few drunks had bothered them a couple of times until members of the Konoha Military Police Force forcibly removed them from their presence.

When the Uzumaki-Namikaze children left the party and returned home, their parents had proceeded to give them their presents, since the day of the festival was also their birthday. Because they wanted to keep their children's birthday a more informal affair, Minato and Kushina had the people who wanted to give presents to the four children drop them off at their household sometime within the past week.

They had all mostly received new clothes and toys as gifts, although a few of the items happened to be extremely useful to them, such as the ninja pouch with the practice shuriken, or a beginner's calligraphy set.

Naruto sighed as he picked up the chakra control book he had brought with him. Trying to read was a lot harder than he had initially thought, but from what he could understand, the simplest exercise was sticking a leaf to his forehead with chakra. So, picking up one of the leaves that had fallen off the tree he was leaning against, Naruto attempted to stick the leaf to his forehead, to no avail.

The leaf simply wouldn't stick. Try after try, he would pick up the leaf and put it to his forehead, only for it to fall as soon as his hand moved away. Frustrated at his lack of progress, Naruto simply began concentrating harder, trying to get the leaf to stick to his head.

He was so focused on his task that he failed to notice when two people he had met the day before entered the park.

* * *

Shisui Uchiha walked into the park, watching his little cousin Sasuke run in and join the rest of the kiddies in their games. He sighed to himself, wondering why he had bothered agreeing to look after Sasuke for a few hours, even though he already knew the answer.

He had been the only one available at the moment. His uncle Fugaku was busy at the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters doing his job; his aunt Mikoto was off at a meeting with the Uchiha clan elders; and Itachi was away on a C-ranked mission with his genin team. Having nothing else to do, Shisui had agreed to take Sasuke to the park.

Watching as Sasuke was quickly integrated into the game, Shisui suddenly realized that something seemed to be missing. 'Where is Minato-sama's fourth son? Shouldn't he be here as well?' Shisui thought to himself as he began looking around for the wayward child.

He soon spotted the kid sitting by himself underneath a tree, with what appeared to be a book and… a leaf? Shisui watched as the boy pressed the leaf against his forehead, only to have the leaf fall to the ground. 'Is he trying to do the Leaf Concentration exercise?"

As he watched the boy pick up the leaf again and place it back against his forehead, Shisui subtly activated his Sharingan. 'Hmmm, by the looks of it, he seems to be using too much chakra.'

Deactivating his Sharingan, Shisui walked over to where the boy was sitting and said, "Hey there."

The boy jumped, startled by the greeting, before turning to look at the newcomer. "Hello sir. Can I help you?"

"I noticed that you were trying to do the Leaf Concentration exercise over here, and I was just wondering why you weren't playing with the other kids." Shisui said.

The boy responded, "Normally I would, but I just unlocked my chakra this morning, and I want to be able to control it as soon as possible so that I can protect my brother and sisters as soon as possible." The kid tensed up for a moment, before his shoulders slumped. "So I'm trying to complete this exercise, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can you help me sir?"

Shisui smiled. "Yeah I can help. It's never shameful to ask for help when you need it. The problem you're currently having is that you're trying to use too much chakra. You need to use less chakra in order to get the leaf to stick to your head."

Activating his Sharingan, Shisui watched as the kid in front of him attempted to complete the exercise. As he watched, Shisui noted that although he was using less chakra than before, the kid was still using far too much to be able to even have the leaf stick for a few seconds.

"Use less chakra." Shisui commanded. The boy complied, and Shisui watched as the amount of chakra being channeled to his forehead shrink even further. "Less." Shisui said again.

This time, as he decreased the amount of chakra he was using, something extraordinary happened. As the boy moved his hand away from his forehead, the leaf stayed where it was. Although it fell off a few seconds later, it was still a big improvement from before.

"Did I do it?" The kid asked in wonder.

"Yep." Shisui said. "Now all you have to do is get better at controlling it. Unfortunately, it seems like you have a ton of chakra, which is bad when it comes to chakra control. The more chakra you have, the harder it is to control."

The boy look downtrodden for a few moments, before a questioning look came across his face as he raised his head and asked, "Would you be able to help me then sir? You must know a lot more about chakra control than I do, especially since you're a shinobi." Considering Shisui's hitai-ate was comfortably placed on his forehead, the conclusion that he was a shinobi wasn't that hard to come to.

"I don't know," Shisui said a bit uneasily. "I'm going to be really busy with my duties, so I probably won't be around to help all that much."

"That's fine." The boy said. "You can just help me around when you're not on a mission or anything."

Looking into the wide, pleading eyes of the boy, Shisui could feel his resistance to the idea slowly come apart. Taking a moment to actually think about the proposition, Shisui could see no downsides to the question at hand.

"Alright." Shisui finally said. The boy grinned at his answer. "My name is Shisui Uchiha. Yours?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. I hope to learn many things from you, Shisui-sensei." The boy replied. Shisui grinned back at the kid. The day certainly hadn't turned out as he had expected, but the future seemed a lot brighter to him.

* * *

Kongō Fūsa - Adamantine Sealing Chains

* * *

Hello. Thank you for continuing to read my story, whether you support it or not. All of the reviews that were left helped me tremendously, since they helped me pick out the mistakes that I made in the first chapter as well as how to guide this chapter.

In this chapter we learn more about the family in general, and sort of get into the relationships they seem to have with other people. Events should start to pick up in the next chapter though, so be on the lookout for that.

A question I was asked about was why the masked man knew Kotoamatsukami. In canon only Shisui Uchiha had this ability, but I don't think it was ever stated that it was exclusive to him. Therefore, it is always possible that it will develop for another person, and so in this story the masked man has developed it. It's also stated that the user doesn't need to make eye contact with its target, only that the target is within his or her field of view, which is why the masked man could use it at a distance. I know the part about the Konoha shinobi being too tired to notice it happening is a bit lame, but anyone who had just defeated the monster that nearly destroyed their home and all of their friends and family would be as well.

Also, I want to make it clear that when the masked man used Kotoamatsukami, he didn't make them forget that they had a fourth child, only which one contained the Kyuubi. Minato and Kushina still know that they have four children, but they aren't able to remember which one they sealed the bijuu into. The masked man also doesn't know which one is the real jinchuriki, This fact will probably come into play later.

People have also been asking whether this is going to turn into a Naruto neglect story. I can say that I don't believe it will turn into such a story, but there will be parts of it that will seem like it is. You'll just have to continue to read to find out.

I would like to have a pairing for this story; I just don't have any idea as to who Naruto would be paired with or if it will be a harem, etc. I can confirm though that if it is a harem, it will not include Naruto's sisters.

Thanks for continuing to read my story. Feel free to leave a review or a PM if you have any questions you want me to answer. I hope you visit again.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This is a fan-made story. All rights of Naruto go to Masashi Kishimoto.

 **Hidden Turmoil**

 _(4 years later, 8 years after Kyūbi attack)_

The moon was shining over a cloudless sky as night set in upon Konohagakure. With patches of moonlight on the ground being the only source of light available, it would be hard for anyone without a dōjutsu to see through the darkness of the forest surrounding the hidden village. It was the perfect setting for anyone who had the skills to get past the sensory barrier around the village to enter Konoha unannounced.

This was the setting that the masked man entered into. Appearing from a swirling vortex in the air that came out of nowhere, his body shook a little as he adjusted to the new surroundings and ended his jutsu. Taking in his surroundings, the masked man turned towards his destination, ready to carry out his plan. He had arrived on the side of the village where the Uchiha clan compound was located, and the masked man knew he had to complete his objective quickly, since he didn't give himself a large time frame to work with.

As he silently moved to the top of a tree and crossed the walls that surrounded the village, the masked man kept looking around, wary of being seen by any patrolling ANBU or Uchiha clan members as he entered the outskirts of the clan compound. Although he had snuck into the village before, he was careful to maintain his presence a secret. After all, he didn't want to reveal himself to anyone other than those he wanted to know.

Moving himself into an area where he knew his target would eventually come to investigate, the masked man moved to lean his back against a nearby tree and wait. Thinking about what led to the current circumstances, the masked man let out a sigh. His target for the evening was an individual he had an eye on for several years. Attracting the attention of his spy network from his achievements a few years ago, the target in mind was one of three individuals who he wanted for their abilities. The other two were being taken care of by his other allies, and it was up to him to retrieve his target.

The masked man did not have to wait long. Around 15 minutes later, a figure landed several feet away from him. As he turned to face the newcomer, he couldn't help but smirk to himself as he saw the unmistakable glow of a pair of Sharingan eyes looking straight at him. 'Once again, Zetsu's intelligence was on point.' The masked man thought to himself. He said, "Itachi Uchiha, I presume?"

Itachi Uchiha tensed as he heard the question. "Who are you, and why are you trespassing on Konoha territory? You're obviously no ordinary shinobi, if you were able to make it this far in without the ANBU on duty noticing."

"Please." The masked man snorted. "I've gotten into far more secure places than Konoha. Infiltrating this place was easy. As for who I am," The masked man activated his own Sharingan, allowing the newcomer to see his dōjutsu through the single eye hole in his mask, "You may call me Madara Uchiha."

Upon seeing his clan's kekkei genkai, the newcomer's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his cool demeanor returned. Moving into a more noticeable stance, Itachi said slowly, "How do you know who I am?"

"Itachi Uchiha, age 13, member of the famous Uchiha clan with a fully developed Sharingan. Became a chūnin at 10, joined ANBU at 11, recently promoted to ANBU captain at 13. A very impressive resume, if I do say so myself." The masked man recited.

"You said you were Madara Uchiha, but how is that possible?" Itachi argued. "Madara has been dead for a long time."

The masked man chuckled. "Believe what you will. The fact remains that I represent Madara's will, and as such I will carry out his ideals."

Keeping up his guard, aware that the man in front of him was an extremely dangerous foe, Itachi asked, "You still haven't answered answer my question as to why you are here."

The masked man laughed. "I am here to offer you a proposition, Itachi-san. I will help you with the little problem you have now. In return, I would like your help with my plan to bring peace to this world."

Itachi narrowed his eyes, his Sharingan accentuating his glare. "How do you know about the coup?"

The masked man scoffed. "My source of information has always been spot on. Any major event in any city, he alerts me about. A secret coup d'état is hardly something a clan could hide from him if he tried."

"I see," Itachi said slowly. "And what exactly makes you think I would need your help?"

The masked man said, "You obviously know what would happen if the coup were to occur. All I offer is a means to solve that problem beforehand."

Frowning, Itachi asked. "Say I do accept your assistance. What would your plan be for this situation be?"

The masked man smiled. "I have a few suggestions."

* * *

The masked man watched as Itachi left the area silently, leaving him alone in the clearing. Satisfied that he completed what he had set out to do, the masked man began to move back towards the border of the village so he could teleport out of the village without fear of anyone spotting his technique.

The trip to the wall was relatively well; the only people he ran into were a pair of Uchiha clan guards out patrolling the compound, though he simply waited until they had moved on before continuing. It wasn't until he reached the outside of the village that things started to go downhill.

As soon as his landed on a tree, he saw several shuriken fly straight at him from the shadows of the forest. Jumping to the side, the masked man watched the shuriken fly past him, only to catch something coming towards his head with his eye. Ducking his head, he watched as a tantō flew over his head, with a cloaked shinobi holding onto its hilt. The cloaked shinobi proceeded to jump off of the branch of the tree the masked man was on, and landed on another tree. Turning around, with his tantō drawn, the masked man could see that the cloaked shinobi was wearing a blank ANBU mask to cover his face, with a brown cloak and ANBU armor underneath it.

' _Root_ shinobi, huh,' the masked man thought to himself. As he stood up, he became aware of many shinobi surrounding him. Turning his head to look around him, he noted that everyone he could see was wearing similar attire to the one in front of him.

All of a sudden, he could hear the unmistakable sounds of a person walking towards him. As he turned towards the sound, he could see an old man walking towards him. The old man had bandages covering the right side of his face and his right arm. His right arm was also in a golden brace that served no obvious purpose. In his left hand he held a cane that belied his abilities to others.

Despite never seeing him before, the masked man recognized the old man instantly. This was the man who had worked in the shadows throughout his lifetime, doing the dirty work no one else would do. The man renowned as the _Shinobi no Yami_ (The Darkness of the Shinobi). "Danzō Shimura, isn't it?"

"Madara Uchiha, or so he calls himself." Danzō said, looking up at the masked man. "But that's not who you really are, is it?"

"No, I'm not." The masked man replied. "But I am Madara's will, and—"

"I already know." Danzō interrupted. "I overheard your conversation with young Itachi before."

'Crap!' The masked man kept up a neutral stance, though on the inside he was panicking, wondering how much the man in front of him had overheard.

"The last plan you suggested is quite ingenious, if I do say so myself." Danzō continued, unaware of the masked man's plight. "We may have to end up implementing it, if all other options fail. Which is what brings me here to you now."

"Oh?" The masked man asked, curious as to where the conversation was heading.

"You know as well as I do that the Uchiha clan will never back down, especially if they feel they're being threatened. The damage done by the _Nidaime Hokage_ with the establishment of the _Konoha Military Police Force_ and the actions of the citizens of Konoha has already pushed them close to the edge. It will only be a matter of time before they act." Danzō stated. "It is imperative that we act first before the Uchihas can make their move."

"And what exactly does this have to do with me?" The masked man questioned.

"If you help us deal with this situation," Danzō said, "I will give you half of the Sharingan eyes we salvage from their bodies."

The masked man said, "An intriguing offer, but it sounds like I will be doing all the work. If that's the case, then I should get all of the Sharingan to myself."

"No, my _Root_ will be there as well. You won't be doing this alone." Danzō said.

"Those are slightly more acceptable terms, but how do I know you're not trying to set me up?" The masked man asked.

"You don't." Danzō said bluntly. Seeing the masked man's unconvinced form, Danzō sighed. "How about this: in three days' time, I will send a subordinate to meet you here at this exact time to let you know whether or not this plan will proceed as planned."

The masked man was silent for a couple of seconds. Long enough for Danzō to start feeling antsy as to whether or not he would accept his proposition. "… Very well then. I await your response, Danzō Shimura." The masked man finally said.

Danzō nodded his head as he turned around and began to walk slowly back to the village. With a silent command, the masked man could sense the surrounding _Root_ shinobi leave the area. Watching Danzō as he walked away, the masked man stayed in place until Danzō was out of sight.

A smile appeared on his face, unnoticed by anyone else. While unexpected, Danzō's presence would be a welcome backup strategy should anything go wrong with the initial plan. A swirling vortex soon engulfed his body as all traces of his presence disappeared from the forest.

Unnoticed by the masked man, one sole _Root_ member had remained behind, watching him as he teleported away. Noting down the method of transportation the masked man used for later, the _Root_ member disappeared into the forest, intent on reporting his findings back to Danzō.

* * *

 _(The next day)_

"One more time!" Shisui shouted, his arms crossed as he watched his **Kage Bunshin** throw some shuriken at his pupil. Now 14, Shisui's appearance hadn't changed much over the past four years. Other than growing taller and getting bigger clothes, the only change was the addition of a tantō strapped to his back, with the hilt coming over his right shoulder. During that time, he had been promoted to jōnin and became the leader of a shinobi squad. Making a name for himself as _Shunshin no Shisui_ (Shisui of the Body Flicker), Shisui's reputation in the shinobi world was growing bigger every day.

Going through several hand signs while taking a deep breath, Naruto shouted, " **Fūton: Daitoppa**!" before releasing a blast of wind that blew back all of the shuriken the clone threw, taking out the **Kage Bunshin** in the process. Finishing the jutsu, Naruto turned to look at Shisui, who gave him a look of approval.

Now 8 years old, Naruto had grown since he had first asked Shisui to teach him. Whenever he had free time and knew Shisui was around, Naruto would always go over to the Uchiha clan compound and ask for lessons. Thanks to Shisui's teachings and his family's training sessions, Naruto was ranked as the top overall student in his class at the _Academy_.

"Very good, Naruto-kun." Shisui said as he walked over to his student. "The execution of the jutsu was perfect. The only thing that can be improved is the power behind the jutsu, but that will naturally improve as you and your chakra reserves grow bigger and stronger. You have been keeping up with your chakra control exercises, haven't you?"

"Hai." Naruto responded. "Kaa-chan has us doing modified tree-walking and water-walking now."

"Good. We'll go back to the leaf-cutting exercise then. You still haven't been able to cut through it entirely with your wind chakra." Shisui said, picking up a leaf and handing it to Naruto.

"Hai, sensei." Naruto said, taking the leaf and placing it between his hands before concentrating. Almost immediately, a small, jagged cut appeared at the bottom of the leaf. As Naruto continued, the cut slowly but surely started to go through the rest of the leaf, although the cut continued to appear rough.

Shisui smiled at the progress his student had already made. Elemental training normally took many years for an experienced shinobi to complete. Although he had started Naruto on training in his primary element early, it was still astounding to see an eight year old boy complete a nature manipulation exercise, even if his control wasn't completely refined.

"Shisui!" A male's voice resounded from the entrance of the clan training ground the two of them were using, which both of them recognized as Itachi's. "The clan meeting will be starting soon. We should get going if we're going to be there on time."

"Alright, thanks!" Shisui replied. "Naruto-kun, I'm going to have to go now. Keep up with the exercises, and head on home after you're done, alright?"

"Hai!" Naruto said, before stopping his exercise and bowing to Shisui. "Arigatou, sensei."

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun. I'll see you some other time then." Shisui turned and began to walk out of the training grounds. As he did so, he noticed Naruto turn his attention back towards the cut leaf and restarted his efforts with renewed vigor.

Itachi was waiting for Shisui at the entrance of the clan training ground, and began to start walking towards the clan meeting area while Shisui caught up with him. As they walked together, Itachi asked, "So how is Naruto-kun's training going?"

"It's going great," Shisui replied. "Naruto-kun has been doing extremely well. His ninjutsu and taijutsu skills are coming along extremely well, and I believe Kushina-sama is teaching him fūinjutsu and has even started him on kenjutsu."

"Wow. How skilled do you think he is?" Itachi asked, curious as to what skill level the young Namikaze was at.

"He's definitely better than any _Academy_ student, that's for sure. I would say he's chūnin level, but his lack of experience puts him down to genin level." Shisui said.

"Seriously? He's that good?" A disbelieving tone entered Itachi's voice.

"Yep. Naruto-kun is very intelligent and perceptive of his surroundings. He also understands that simply knowing many strong and different techniques doesn't make for a strong shinobi." Shisui said, a hint of pride evident in his tone.

"Wow. Not many other kids think like that at his age. The only ones I really knew who had that mindset are you and me." Itachi said in awe. He knew Naruto was smart for his age, but he hadn't realized that Naruto was so insightful.

As the two of them came across the main road in the compound, they joined up with other members of the Uchiha clan who were also headed towards the meeting place. Nearly every member was wearing a standard Uchiha outfit, which consisted of a long-sleeved, black collared shirt with a Uchiha fan on the back, and dark-colored pants. As they merged with the group, Shisui asked, "So how is Sasuke-kun? I haven't talked with him other than the times where we run into each other and he's following you."

"He's doing well in the _Academy_ ; one of the top students I believe." Itachi replied. "I think he is one of the strongest in his class, but I haven't been able to test his skill level recently due to my duties in ANBU."

"How has ANBU been anyway?" Shisui questioned.

"A lot of secret business; I'm not allowed to discuss it, sorry." Itachi said. Shisui nodded, understanding his reasoning. ANBU had a reason for being directly under the kage's command.

As the group of Uchihas got closer and closer to the meeting place, a location known as the Naka Shrine, Itachi heard Shisui mutter to himself, "I hope this meeting goes well," before he fell silent.

The group walked up to the entrance of the building, pausing as the Uchiha clan guards stationed there verified each person that walked through. Both Itachi and Shisui entered without a problem, and as they walked in, they saw people walking towards the area where the seventh tatami mat from the far right was located.

The tatami mat had been moved from its original position, and where it used to be was a staircase that Uchiha clan members were taking down. Itachi and Shisui followed their clansmen down the staircase to a small room already half filled with other members of the Uchiha clan. At the opposite end of the room, behind where the clan head Fugaku Uchiha and two Uchiha clan elders were standing, was a stone monument that had indecipherable characters to the naked eye. These characters were the secrets of the Uchiha clan in words, and could only be read with an active Sharingan; the further developed the ocular powers the more one could read.

Shisui and Itachi moved to sit near the wall at the opposite side of where the stone monument stood. As the last few members of the clan came in and took their own seats, Fugaku moved to face the entire clan, while the two elders he had been speaking to stood behind him.

"Greetings." Fugaku said to the audience. As the conversations died down and everyone gave their attention to their clan head, Fugaku continued, "Thank you for coming tonight. We have much to discuss. The first order of business tonight are the plans for our clan's strength. If we wish to regain our lost power, we must be prepared to fight for it. Yashiro, what is the status of our supplies?"

An older man with ash-grey hair and squinty eyes stood up. He wore the standard Uchiha outfit, as well as a pair of black arm guards, bandages on his legs, and a dark-colored obi with a light-colored line running through it. "The number of weapons and armor we are accumulating is proceeding as planned, Fugaku-sama. Our food situation is much the same, but we will need to get more non-perishable foods in case we come under siege or something."

"Thank you Yashiro." As the ash-grey haired man sat back down, Fugaku said, "Tekka, how goes the training of our clansmen?"

A man with shoulder-length, dull-black hair, and a dot on the center of his forehead stood up. "The training sessions have been going well, Fugaku-sama. I'm confident to say that the majority of our clan are able to defend themselves accordingly. We'll hopefully be moving from just practice to mock battle simulations soon."

"Good. Continue training our clansmen. They must be ready when we finally act." While Tekka returned to his previous position, Fugaku turned to a man with shoulder-length black hair and an x-shaped scar on his right cheek. "Inabi, what of our defenses?"

"The clan guards haven't picked up anything unusual or threatening during their patrols, Fugaku-sama. We continue to suspect that the ANBU keep regular surveillance on us, but we have no way of proving that directly." Finishing his thoughts, Inabi bowed to his clan leader before taking a seat.

"Hmmm. Itachi!" Itachi's head snapped out of his thoughts as he heard his name being called by his father. "What can you tell us about the ANBU surveillance situation concerning our clan compound?"

Standing up, Itachi said, "As far as I'm aware, the ANBU members keep watch on our compound 24/7. However, I believe they only have cameras set up at the entrances, since I have yet to see one showing the inside of the compound."

Both Fugaku and the two Uchiha clan elders frowned at his words; they had hoped that Itachi would have been able to get more information than that. "Itachi, keep up informed on what the Hokage is planning. We cannot afford to make any mistakes."

"Hai, otou-sama." Itachi said, before sitting back down next to Shisui.

Fugaku sighed at his eldest son's actions, before he turned back towards the audience. "Anyways, in order to ensure our victory, we're going to need more than just strong fighters. Last meeting we asked of you all to think of ways for us to gain any advantages in the off-chance we go to war. Does anybody have any ideas?"

"Why don't we have some members infiltrate different areas of the village, so that we have people ready to act when the time comes?" One random Uchiha clan member called out.

"No, that wouldn't work. It would be too suspicious, and the Hokage would send his forces to investigate." Another clan member refuted. Shouts began to fill the room as different members tried to suggest their ideas for success, only to have them turned down by others.

"What if we took someone or something to use as bargaining power? Something powerful or essential to the village perhaps?" Inabi ventured loudly. Murmurs of agreement soon arose among the clansmen, though a few members chose to keep their silence.

One of the clan elders spoke up. "Shisui! You are training with one of the Hokage's children. Do you think we could use any of the Namikaze heirs as possible leverage against the Hokage?"

Shisui stood up and gave a disapproving glare towards the Uchiha clan head. "With all due respect clan elders, Fugaku-sama, I would highly recommend you disregard that train of thought immediately. The legendary wrath of the _Akai Chishio no Habanero_ (Red Hot-Blooded Habanero) would be brought down upon us. That's not to mention we would lose any and all support we currently have for bringing children into the conflict." As the clan elder tried to interrupt, Shisui continued his rant. "Even if this was a viable option, we would cause too much attention going through the effort of kidnapping one. Naruto-kun is too skilled to not notice anything out of the ordinary, and the other three children come too irregularly to be considered as possible targets."

"Enough!" Fugaku roared, shocking everyone present at his manner. "Shisui, this was only an idea. Nothing is set in stone as of yet. Though the elder could have said that a bit differently, we should still take advantage of every opening we find." Shisui's scowl only intensified as he sat back down, crossing his arms to further enhance his displeasure at the mentality of his clansmen.

"Anyways, everyone please continue your preparations. We will update you all on the status of our plan at our next meeting." said Fugaku, ending the discussion there. "Let's move onto the next item on our agenda…"

Itachi and Shisui could only sigh as they let their minds wander to other topics, the subject of the clan meeting no longer interesting to them.

* * *

"Naomi-chan, Menma-kun, can you call your brother and father to come over for dinner?" Kushina asked as she began pulling out plates and utensils from the kitchen cabinets.

"Yes, kaa-chan." They both said as they ran out of the kitchen, one headed towards Minato's study while the other went to their living room. Kushina smiled at the enthusiasm the two of them showed, before turning back to the dinnerware, only to see Natsumi already picking them up and bringing them over to the dinner table. Seeing that the dishes were being taken care of, Kushina went back towards where the cooked food was and began preparing it for the table.

While Menma ran upstairs to find Minato, Naomi continued past into the living room, where Naruto was sitting on the couch. He was surrounded by various books and scrolls, though what caught Naomi's eye was a large scroll on Naruto's lap that he was currently writing in at a fast pace. The only other scroll she had ever seen before that was similar in size was the scroll her godfather Jiraiya would carry around on his back. Judging from Naruto's head movements, turning towards an open book set to the side and back to the scroll he was writing in, he seemed to be hard at work on whatever he was doing.

"Naruto-nii! Kaa-chan wants us to come to dinner." Naomi shouted as she ran across the room to where Naruto was sitting, stopping just by him as she leaned down to look at what he was working on. "What are you doing?"

"I'm practicing my calligraphy, Naomi-chan." Naruto said, not looking up from his work. As Naomi took a closer look, she saw that nothing there was related to fūinjutsu. They were all technique scrolls, which Naruto was copying the contents of into the large scroll on his lap.

"Why? Isn't it better to practice fūinjutsu instead?" Naomi asked, confused by her brother's actions. To her, it made more sense for one to practice the jutsu he or she was learning, rather than doing the basics all over again.

"There are two reasons why I'm doing this." Naruto said. "The first is to refine my writing. If my handwriting isn't neat and fast enough, my fūinjutsu will suffer and be unreliable when I fight. By practicing my calligraphy, it will help make my writing cleaner and faster than what it is now."

"Oh." Naomi's mouth formed a small "o" as she listened to his explanation.

"The second reason is that these scrolls that I'm copying down are all jutsu scrolls. By reading them while copying them down, I'm learning more about jutsus that I can run into and possibly learn myself." Naruto said as he finished the sentence he was writing and finally looked up at Naomi.

"But isn't it boring, just…reading?" Naomi asked dubiously.

While Naruto began gathering all the scrolls lying around up in a pile, leaving the large scroll he was working on the couch, he said, "Maybe, but it's both interesting and helpful at the same time." Finished, Naruto turned back around and picked up the large scroll, rolling it back up to its closed state.

"Isn't it better to just do the jutsu yourself though? I could never sit and read for that long." Naomi wondered. "And wouldn't tou-san be worried that you would lose our techniques to other people?"

"In order to perform a jutsu, you have to learn about it, correct?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at his sister. Seeing Naomi nod, he continued, "Then what's the difference between learning it from hearing it from your sensei or reading about it? If we're talking about learning about the jutsu, then either option is fine. It's only when you're practicing the jutsu that you should have your sensei helping you out. And what's wrong with reading?" Naruto asked. "If you studied a bit more, then maybe you wouldn't be doing so badly at the _Academy_." He laughed as he saw Naomi stick her tongue out at him in defiance; she was still sore over how she kept doing poorly on the written tests they had.

Grabbing one of the two smaller scrolls on the couch that Naomi noticed was out of her view when she had come into the room, Naruto opened it to an empty seal. Placing the large jutsu scroll onto the seal, he made a hand sign, and with a small poof of smoke, the jutsu scroll disappeared, with characters appearing on the seal signifying what kind of item was sealed there. "As for losing the jutsus, I put two **Chishio Fūin** seals on each of these scrolls with help from kaa-chan and tou-san. If I happen to lose the scroll, someone else won't be able to open it without both my blood and chakra, not that I would let them have either."

Naomi took a closer look at the scrolls. They were the kinds of scrolls that many shinobi usually used to carry around while out on missions: short and thick, easy to carry around your waist with a belt. "Why do you have those already?" Naomi asked. "We're still in the _Academy._ "

"I'm getting ready become a shinobi, of course!" Naruto replied. "And shinobi need good gear just as much as they need skills. Why not start early?" Picking up the two scrolls, Naruto turned to look at her sister. "Anyway, doesn't kaa-chan want us to go to dinner? We should get going."

Naomi jumped; she had gotten so caught up in Naruto's work that she had completely forgotten why she had gone over there in the first place. "Right." She stuttered as she watched Naruto walk by her towards the kitchen, before realizing she was standing still and quickly followed.

As they walked into the kitchen, they saw Kushina, Natsumi, Menma, and Minato already sitting at the dinner table, with the food already set out. "Naomi-chan," Kushina said, "I thought I told you to get Naruto-kun quickly."

"Sorry, kaa-chan," Naomi said as she and Naruto both took their seats at the table.

"Who cares, let's just eat!" Menma said, already digging into his food.

Minato shook his head at Menma's actions, only to see the rest of his family immediately follow suit. Sweat-dropping, he simply took a bite out of his food before asking, "So how has the Academy been for you all?"

"It's great." Naomi said, her food still inside her mouth as she spoke.

Natsumi swallowed what she was eating, before turning towards Minato. "I think we're all doing well. Naruto-kun's still the best of the class, but Naomi, Menma, and I are all near the top as well."

Menma grunted in agreement at her statement, while Naruto simply paused and gave a short nod before returning to his food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Kushina admonished, leading to a bashful Naomi to lower her head in embarrassment. "Anyways, how do you feel your training has come along?"

"I want to learn a new jutsu, kaa-chan. It's boring just practicing chakra control and the basics." Menma complained.

"Yeah," Naomi agreed, "Naruto-nii is ahead of us, and we need to catch up to him."

"I think we're growing stronger, but we still need to refine our basics until they're perfect before we learn anything new." Natsumi said, an amused smile on her face from her sister's complaints.

"Natsumi-nee, you agree with us, right? We need more jutsus in order to beat Naruto-nii." Naomi whined.

"The extra training Shisui-sensei gave me definitely helped me get ahead, but I'm still inexperienced like you and everyone else in our class." Naruto said, a hint of disappointment in his tone.

"Don't worry, you're still young," Minato said, "Experience will come in time. Just enjoy the peace for now."

"Hai tou-san," the four children said. Any time their father had advice, they knew it had to be important.

"Anyway, I heard from one of the _Academy_ teachers that you've been causing trouble in class Menma. Would you like to explain yourself?" Minato and the rest of the Uzumaki-Namikaze family all laughed as they saw Menma freeze, the panic on his face all too obvious for them to see.

* * *

(The next day)

"What mission do you have for us today, Sandaime-sama?" Shisui said, he and his team kneeling before the aged Hokage. He and his team were dressed in the standard Konoha uniform, with the flak jacket and all, Team Shisui looked like any other team from Konoha if you didn't pay attention to who the members were.

"Team Shisui, you'll be conducting a regular patrol along the south-eastern border between _Hi no Kuni_ and _Mizu no Kuni_. You will set out today, and replace the current team stationed there for a week. Afterwards, another team will come and replace you, and you will return to the village. Understood?" Hiruzen said.

"Hai Sandaime-sama." Shisui said. "Is there anything else we should be aware of?"

"We have gotten reports that Kiri shinobi have been seen close to the border. It is currently unknown whether they are part of the Yondaime Mizukage's forces or the bloodline rebels. Either way, if they do appear, be sure to act appropriately in the situation. If that is all, you're dismissed." Hiruzen said, to which Team Shisui **Shunshin** 'd out of the room.

Team Shisui reappeared outside the Hokage Tower, where Shisui ordered, "Team, grab your gear and meet up at the southern gate in 30 minutes."

"Hai taichou!" Shisui's team members said before they disappeared to gather the supplies they would need for the mission.

Returning to the Uchiha district to grab extra gear that he would need, Shisui ran into Itachi, who was on his way out of the compound dressed in his ANBU armor, though his mask was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, hey Itachi." Shisui greeted.

"Hello Shisui," Itachi replied. "Off on another mission?"

"Yeah, my team and I are going on border patrol for a week. Could you let Naruto-kun know that I'll be away during that time?" Shisui asked.

"Sure, I'll let him know today. If I remember correctly, they should be at the _Academy_ right about now." Itachi said.

"Thanks, I've got to run now, see you later Itachi." Shisui said, once again moving past Itachi back into the compound. After taking a few steps past the ANBU captain, Shisui turned back towards Itachi. "Keep an eye out on the situation will ya? I won't be able to help cover your back while I'm away."

"Don't worry, I'll try and slow down our clansmen as much as I can. Just focus on your mission and come back safe." Itachi replied.

"Right. Well see you." Shisui **Shunshin** 'd away, leaving Itachi by himself. Itachi sighed to himself as he watched Shisui leave, before turning around and began moving towards the _Academy_. Considering it was located pretty closely to the Hokage tower, Itachi wondered why Shisui didn't just go tell Naruto himself.

Appearing in one of the classrooms, Itachi looked around silently for his target, only to quickly realize that he was in the wrong classroom. As he swiftly left the classroom, the chūnin in charge looked around, wondering what the disturbance was, only to find no trace of his presence.

Making sure that this time he was in the right classroom, Itachi saw Naruto sitting at one of the desks at the back reading a scroll. Sitting next to him was his brother Menma, who was talking animatedly with Kiba Inuzuka. A few seats in front of them Itachi recognized the Nara and Akimichi clan heirs sitting together, each doing what they did best. To their left sat the two Uzumaki-Namikaze daughters, as well as the Hyūga clan heiress. And to their right sat his little brother Sasuke, who looked annoyed at the attention he was getting from the Yamanaka clan heiress and the pink-haired civilian girl she was friends with.

Appearing behind Naruto, making no attempt to mask his appearance, the sound of Itachi's **Shunshin no Jutsu** alerted everyone in the room to his presence. At the sight of his older brother, Sasuke's demeanor immediately brightened as he gave his brother a wave, which Itachi returned with a smile in Sasuke's direction. While the rest of the children's reactions ranged from complete awe from those unaware of who he was, to the greetings of "Hi Itachi-nii-san" from those that did recognize him, Naruto's response was to simply continue reading the scroll in his hands, which Itachi identified as a scroll on fūinjutsu. The only sign that Naruto acknowledged his entrance was a slight twitch of his head.

Itachi leaned forward, until his head was a couple of inches away from Naruto's. 'Impressive,' Itachi thought to himself, as Naruto didn't noticeably react to his action. "Naruto-kun, Shisui wanted me to let you know that he'll be out on a mission for the next week, so you don't have to come over if you don't want to." Itachi said quietly.

After a few moments of waiting, a quiet murmur of "Arigatou Itachi-san" could be heard from Naruto, though his position didn't change during the exchange.

Seeing that his job was finished, Itachi **Shunshin** 'd away, leaving a classroom full of children who were mostly gawking that an ANBU member had come to personally deliver a message to one of their classmates.

* * *

Itachi kneeled before the four elders and the Hokage as they argued about the situation. At the table in front of him, the _Yondaime Hokage_ , Minato Namikaze, sat in the center. To Itachi's left sat the _Sandaime Hokage_ , Hiruzen Sarutobi, and on the farthest from the left sat Danzō Shimura, the _Shinobi no Yami_ (Shinobi of Darkness). To the right of Minato sat Hiruzen's two teammates from when he was an active shinobi, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.

"The Uchiha clan has gone too far with their latest scheme." Koharu argued. "They must be disciplined for their actions."

"I agree," Danzō said. "We need to make the Uchiha clan an example to the other clans to never defy our generosity."

"Konoha did swear when it was first founded to never interfere with clan affairs." Homura reasoned. "The Uchiha clan may use this to pin the blame on us should we act prematurely."

"That doesn't matter now. What the Uchiha clan is trying to do will threaten the entire village. If we don't put them down now, then they will attack first and cause irreparable damage to the village." Danzō shot back.

"Enough!" Hiruzen bellowed. "We shouldn't talk about Itachi-kun's family like this while he's here."

Listening to the elders' arguments, Itachi felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he heard their opinions over what they should do to his family. Looking at Minato, who hadn't spoken a word during the entire exchange, Itachi wondered what the current Hokage's response to the situation was going to be.

With his eyes closed, his fingers intertwined together and his elbows sitting comfortably on the table in front of him, Minato had kept his mouth while he thought about what to do. Finally opening his eyes, he turned towards Itachi and asked, "Itachi-san, how many members of the Uchiha clan are against the coup?"

"Besides myself, only Shisui Uchiha, my mother and several of the other parents are against the coup as far as I am aware. All of the children are unaware of the rebellion as well; it seems only the members of the _Konoha Military Police Force_ are really for the coup." Itachi replied.

"Do you think either Shisui or yourself can do anything to stop them or at least slow them down?" Minato asked.

"Shisui might; his genjutsu prowess is much greater than mine." Itachi said honestly. "By myself I can only slow them down so much."

"Do what you can to slow them down; I'll try to come up with a compromise that can hopefully appease them enough to stop." Minato ordered.

"Hai Hokage-sama," Itachi said. Before he could leave, he heard one of the elders argue.

"Minato, what are you thinking? If we give them any more time, they will act before us." Danzō said. Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura frowned at his lack of respect, while Minato simply turned to stare at the bandaged man.

"I am not above justice, Danzō," Minato said. "But everyone deserves a chance, and the Uchiha clan is no different. Not everyone needs to be neutralized just because they might be a threat"

"Your kindness will stab you in the back one day, Minato. Can't you see that the Uchiha clan won't listen to reason? They are already too far into their schemes and need to be put down now, before anything bad happens to the village." Danzō argued.

"Danzō! That is enough!" Hiruzen said in a commanding tone. "Minato has made his decision, and it's not your place to question it. You have always acted in the shadows, but now is not the time for such actions."

"Danzō, I know full well what the circumstances are," Minato said, "And I know what we must do should it come to that. But until I give the order, you are not to do anything. Is that clear?" A large amount of pressure began to emanate from Minato, forcing a sweat to break out on the skins of everyone around him as it pushed down on them.

Danzō gritted his teeth as he endured, "Fine, as you wish."

Walking out of the room, Danzō didn't notice Itachi as he began to head down the hallways, muttering to himself over what he should do.

* * *

(A few days later)

A few hundred meters away from the walls of Konoha, hidden in the shadows of the massive trees that made up the forests around Konoha, stood a _Root_ shinobi. Wearing a blank ANBU mask along with a long cloak that covered his armor, this shinobi seemed particularly young if you compared him to other ANBU operatives, although that may have been why he was out there.

Why he was out there? From his actions, he seemed to be waiting for something. Standing still, unmoving, the shinobi in question showed a great amount of patience for his age as he waited.

The hours past and soon day turned into dusk, and before one knew it, night was upon him. The sky was cloudy, and only parts of the moon could be seen at a time. The patches of moonlight on the ground reflected this, as every so often an area of darkness would slowly be bathed in light, while a lit up area would become shrouded in darkness.

Normally, any other average shinobi would have missed it, but to a trained ANBU's eyes, he was only able to just see out of the corner of his eye a disturbance in the forest.

Moving to get a better vantage point, the _Root_ operative watched as a man wearing a spiral mask emerged from a swirling vortex within the air. He quickly moved to get within range of the masked man's vision; this was the person he had been waiting for.

The masked man, after ending his jutsu, turned to look at his surroundings. Seeing an ANBU jump in front of him, making no effort to hide himself, the masked man decided to take a more passive approach to the situation.

"Who are you?" The masked man asked.

"Danzō-sama sent me to meet with you." The _Root_ operative said in a monotone voice.

"Remove your mask then," The masked man said. Although he was willing to give the boy before him the benefit of the doubt, it would still be better to check. If he had no emotion on his face, then he would most likely be telling the truth. If not, then he could always just kill the boy in front of him.

The _Root_ operative tensed; according to his orders, all _Root_ were supposed to never remove their masks unless they were in base or Danzō-sama ordered them to. But this was an important assignment, and this didn't necessarily have to go back to command.

Removing his mask, the operative showed a young boy of about 9 years old, with no expression on his face. Assured by this revelation, the masked man said, "All right then. What message does Danzō have for me?"

The boy said, "Danzō-sama says he plans to act in four days' time. One of the primary targets is out of the village right now, so he's waiting until he returns before he strikes."

The masked man chuckled. "Very well boy." He said, "Tell Danzō that I will comply with his decision, and tell him not to forget what he owes me in return." As a spiraling vortex engulfed his body, the young boy simply stood motionlessly while he watched the masked man disappear, before putting back on his mask and moving to make his way back to report to his leader.

* * *

Chishio Fūin - Blood Seal B-Rank Supplementary Fūinjutsu

A seal often used in conjunction with others by experienced users of fūinjutsu. This particular seal requires the creator to contribute his or her own blood and chakra to make the seal. Without blood from the creator or his or her descendants, it is impossible for anyone else to release the seal.

Fūton: Daitoppa - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique

Shunshin no Jutsu - Body Flicker Technique

* * *

Hi all. Thanks for reading my story, whether you enjoyed it or not. I'm glad my last chapter got many of you interested in my story's development; I can only hope that I will live up to all of your expectations.

This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous one, although I feel as though the ending was a bit rushed however, but I wasn't sure how else to end the chapter. Next chapter should definitely be more exciting for you all.

If you have any questions or want to leave some feedback, feel free to leave a review down below. I hope you visit again.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is a fan-made story. All rights of Naruto go to Masashi Kishimoto.

 **Division**

Shisui sighed as he watched the woods in front of him from where he was stationed. He was worried about what was going on back home, and the mission he was on didn't help to distract him.

The only action that had happened so far during the mission was an encounter with a unit of _Kirigakure_ shinobi around half an hour ago. With his genjutsu, he had easily dispatched two of the Kiri shinobi before they had retreated; it seemed his reputation had even reached into the civil war of _Kirigakure no Sato_.

As he kept watch over his part of the woods, Shisui's thoughts began to drift back towards the events going on in Konoha.

Despite his and Itachi's efforts, the Uchiha rebellion didn't seem like it was slowing down anytime soon. All of the core members of the clan were in agreement to the plan, which led to many of the younger members of the clan throw their support as well. With only some of the mothers assisting them in their efforts to stop the coup, Shisui knew it would take a miracle to be able to emerge from this situation unscathed.

'The younger generation seemed to be following the older generation's opinion though,' Shisui thought to himself. 'If we could convince the clan head and clan elders that it would be wiser to back off and cancel the coup, the younger shinobi would most likely follow. But how would we go about doing that?'

Beginning to move through the forest, going through his rounds, Shisui continued pondering on his dilemma while keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity. 'Words alone wouldn't get the job done. Hokage-sama has been trying to stop Fugaku-sama, but so far it hasn't seemed to be working.'

The Hokage had been trying to negotiate with the clan head and its elders ever since he had found out about the distrust the Uchiha clan members felt towards the village. The Sandaime had been helping him with the diplomatic tensions, since he supported keeping the peace within the village. Danzō Shimura, on the other hand, was for making an example of the Uchiha clan to the rest of the village, only leaving enough members so that they didn't lose the clan completely. Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado both sat somewhere in the middle on the issue, wanting to punish the clan but not massacre its members.

Reaching the end of his segment of the woods, Shisui paused for a moment as a possibility popped into his head. 'Would genjutsu work? Normal Sharingan genjutsu wouldn't; they're too experienced to fall for something like that. The only option that could work would be that technique, but is it worth the risk that comes with it?'

After he checked the area out and confirmed that his segment of the forest was cleared, he turned around and began to head back towards the outpost. ' **Kotoamatsukami** , a genjutsu unique to my Mangekyō Sharingan, as far as I'm aware. Its ability to subtly control another person far outweighs that of the normal Sharingan, not to mention it doesn't need eye contact for it to take effect. The only downside of this technique is the long cooldown the eyes need each time it's used; the more power used the longer the time in between uses will be. If I use this it will definitely change Fugaku-sama's mind and stop the coup, but at the same time if word gets out of what I've done, the clansmen would support the rebellion more than ever.'

Shaking his head at the thought, Shisui murmured to himself, "No, it needs to be done. If I don't, who knows what will happen?"

Finishing his patrol, Shisui nodded towards one of his teammates, who waved back as they switched guard positions with each other. Returning back to the outpost where his team made camp, Shisui's determination held strong as he decided on his course of action for the coming days.

* * *

 _(One week later)_

It was around midday when Shisui arrived back at Konoha. Another jōnin team had come to relieve them the day before, so he and his team had stayed one final night at the outpost before returning to the village the following day.

As the team approached the front gates of Konoha, Shisui could see that the gates were currently wide open, while the two gate guards were sitting in a booth to their left inside the walls of the village. The booth was located on the left side of the gate, and the two chūnin sitting inside were at attention, seemingly on the lookout for anything suspicious.

One of the two chūnin saw the team as they approached the front gate, and waved them over to where they were located. The other gate guard, noticing his associate's actions, moved to grab the checklist in preparation to sign them in.

As the team entered through the gates, the first chūnin called out, "Halt! State your name and business here in _Konohagakure no Sato_."

Stopping, Shisui turned to face the gate guard and said, "Jōnin Shisui Uchiha and team returning from border patrol between _Hi no Kuni_ and _Mizu no Kuni_."

While the second gate guard began going through the papers, one of Shisui's teammates asked, "So who are you two? I don't think I've ever seen you out here before."

"I'm Kotetsu Hagane, and my partner here is Izumo Kamizuki. This is our first time being assigned to gate mission duty. No more chasing Tora for us!" The first guard replied. Hearing their names, Shisui dimly remembered that they had been promoted recently for their service in the field, though a small part of him wondered if it was to take pity on them after seeing them chase the Daimyo's wife's cat for several years.

"Yeah, I'm just glad our skills are finally being put towards the greater good of Konoha." Izumo said.

Another member of his team sniggered at the comment. "Wait until they found out that gate duty is basically the D-rank missions for chūnins." The rest of the group tried to hide their laughter, imagining the expressions on the two new chūnins' faces of when they finally learned what it was really like being a gate guard.

Finally finding the sheet noting their departure, Izumo made a couple of marks on the sheet of paper, before turning back towards the group and said, "Yes, your team is cleared for entry Shisui-san. Please make your way to the Hokage tower for debriefing."

"Thank you Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san. Enjoy the rest of your day." Shisui replied good-naturedly, before taking off towards the Hokage tower. After giving their own regards to the two chūnin, the rest of the team followed.

As they ran across the rooftops, the team quickly made their way towards the Hokage tower. They passed overhead the heads of many villagers and children alike; some noticing them, others ignoring the quick shinobi.

Shisui jumped back down into the streets once he reached the Hokage tower, and quickly walked through the entrance. The lobby was a busy workplace, with people moving around each other, usually carrying packages or stacks of paper with them. Navigating through the mass of workers, Shisui made his way to the front desk, where a secretary was sitting. The secretary directed him towards the Hokage's office, where he made his way to with his team following right behind him.

As they made their way towards the Hokage's office's entrance, Shisui watched as an old man with bandages over one eye and a brace around his arm on the same side walk out of the office. A second old man and an old woman followed the crippled elder out the door. Recognizing the people standing before him, Shisui and his team gave a short bow in the elders' direction as they slowly walked past, the cane in the bandaged man's good hand making a quiet thump every time it met the ground.

Entering the Hokage's office, the team saw both the Third and Fourth Hokages quietly talking to one another. Coughing into his sleeve to get their attention, Shisui said, "Team Shisui reporting in from border patrol, Hokage-sama, Sandaime-sama."

"Ah yes," the Sandaime spoke, "Your team was assigned to our border with _Mizu no Kuni_ , correct?"

"Hai. My team and I left for the border a week ago. We patrolled the border, until another team arrived yesterday to replace us. We then left in the morning and returned back to Konoha." Shisui reported.

"Did anything of note happen while you were out there?" Minato asked.

"No, Hokage-sama. Other than a few small skirmishes between us and some Kiri shinobi, the border was relatively quiet. We are unsure as to whether or not they were members of the bloodline rebels." Shisui answered.

"Thank you Shisui-san. Could you please stay with us for a moment longer? The rest of you are dismissed; be sure to hand in your reports within three days please." The Hokage said.

"Hai Hokage-sama," the rest of Team Shisui saluted before leaving the room, with some of the members taking a quick glance back at their captain, wondering what they could possibly need to talk about.

A couple moments after the door closed, as they heard the sounds of footsteps walking away and the sound of voices getting quieter, Shisui turned back towards the two kages. "So what did you want to talk to me about, Hokage-sama?"

A sigh escaped from Minato's lips. "Let's move this conversation to another room. It would be best if we had everyone in one place before we continued any further."

Not knowing what else to do, Shisui waited until both Minato and Hiruzen got up and left the room, before following them through the halls of the Hokage into what appeared to be a medium-sized meeting room. It was there that the three elders he had seen before were quietly speaking to each other. What they were speaking about, he would never know.

The elders noticed almost immediately when the two kages and the Uchiha entered the room. Without a word, they moved to take their own seats at a table on the opposite end of the room. Minato and Hiruzen walked over to sit down at the table as well, leaving Shisui to stand alone in front of the senior members as they took their seats.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Shisui, kneeling down on one knee in front of his superiors, finally asked.

Ignoring Shisui for a moment, Minato called out, "Weasel." An ANBU member appeared next to Shisui, and kneeled beside him. "Please take off your mask."

Looking the face of Itachi Uchiha, who seemed just as confused as he was, Shisui turned to look back at the Hokage, searching for an answer on his facial expression.

"ANBU, please leave us alone for now," Minato said to seemingly no one. After sensing several signatures leaving the vicinity, he continued, "We would like for you to give us an update on the Uchiha coup d'état, Itachi. Since Shisui wasn't in the village this past week, he's here to get updated on the situation."

Itachi nodded. "The majority of the Uchiha clan is still in support of the rebellion, Hokage-sama. While the clan doesn't seem to have made any moves against Konoha yet, many of the younger population who are aware of the coup have started to act more aggressively against the villagers and fellow shinobi."

"Unfortunately, our efforts have not borne any fruit," Hiruzen stated. "Whatever we have tried to offer in order to appease them, the Uchiha clan leaders have not accepted."

"At the rate this is going, the clan may be ready to act as soon as next week," Itachi added helpfully. "If something is to be done, it needs to be done quickly."

"I'm telling you, Minato, the only way we can solve the problem now is by making an example of the Uchiha clan," Danzō said. "Show the rest of the clans that it is Konoha who is in charge, and that dissent will not be tolerated."

"I have to agree with Danzō, Hokage-sama," Homura said. "At the rate this is going, we won't be able to reach a settlement before some bloodshed happens."

"Enough!" Hiruzen shouted. "We should not be talking about such things in front of these two." All the people there could see the flurry of emotions flashing across both Itachi's and Shisui's faces as they silently listened to their deliberations.

"Maybe so," Minato sighed, "But it still doesn't help what we are going to do to try and resolve this situation."

"I've been stirring over an idea, but it may or may not work," Shisui spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone else in the room. "The real problem that needs to be dealt with are the clan elders and the clan head, Fugaku Uchiha. Because they are leading the movement, the rest of the clan defers to them. If we are able to convince them to stop, then the rest of the clan should follow."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Koharu, another one of the elders, snorted.

Shisui closed his eyes for a moment, before reopening them to have his Sharingan eyes staring back at the four people at the table. Knowing that his next words would decide the course of their actions, he knew he would have to choose them carefully.

Everyone else in the room was shocked when Shisui's Sharingan morphed from the standard three tomoe into a four-pointed pinwheel in both eyes. "The Mangekyō Sharingan," Hiruzen uttered in disbelief, shocked to see what he had only heard about in the past. His sensei, the _Nidaime Hokage_ Tobirama Senju, had told him about the Mangekyō Sharingan once before, and that only a small number of Uchihas had ever managed to evolve their eyes past the standard three tomoe, one of them being the other founder of Konoha, Madara Uchiha.

"Yes, Sandaime-sama. With my Mangekyō Sharingan, I have developed a powerful genjutsu technique that is considered to be of the highest caliber. This technique, which I learned is called **Kotoamatsukami** , grants the user the ability to subtly manipulate anyone within my eyesight, and can add or erase memories accordingly to his or her mind."

"I believe if I use this technique on the Uchiha clan leaders, I would be able to at least buy you some more time to come up with a proposition. Best case scenario, Fugaku-sama and the elders will back down, and talks of a coup will end. Worst case scenario," Here Shisui winced a little, "The Uchiha clan will find out what I tried to do and will act against Konoha immediately. Not to mention I will be cast out of the clan."

"If it's for the good of Konoha, then it will be a small price to pay," Danzō said, receiving mild glares from Shisui and Itachi, as well as a stern look from Hiruzen. "While this plan does have some merit to it, there are too many risks that come with it as well. Better to kill off the majority of the clan, so that no loose ends will be left behind."

"If we go ahead with your plan Danzō, then Konoha will be severely weakened from the loss of one of our major clans. This plan lets us retain the strength of the Uchiha clan, as well as prevents the loss of life here in the village," Hiruzen criticized.

Shisui looked towards Minato, who had his head lowered slightly, deep in thought. Raising his head, Minato ordered, "Shisui, if you would, buy us as much time as you possibly can. We'll come up with a resolution quickly. Itachi, return to your post. Make sure no one else finds out what we have discussed here today. You are dismissed; the rest of us have another thing we need to discuss."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Shisui and Itachi both said, before they both left the room. Neither of them noticed the conspiring look on Danzō's face as they walked away.

* * *

The Academy students were all outside for their lunch break. Many of them were sitting and talking with their own little clichés, with the largest group being all of the clan heirs roughly sitting together. In fact, the only civilian born student with them was Sakura, but that was because she had been invited over by Ino.

While many of the kids within the group were busy eating and chatting amongst one another, one member was staring off into the distance, his bento left opened but untouched in front of him.

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze sat slightly away from his group of friends, gathering his own thoughts but being dimly aware of the conversation being spoken beside him. What was going through his mind, one might ask. Well, being a ninja-in-training, Naruto paid more attention to his surroundings than civilians, and as such was accustomed to picking out quick movement in his peripheral vision.

Just a couple of minutes ago he had seen out the corner of his eye several ninjas moving quickly across the rooftops. Despite not being able to identify who they were, Naruto knew that his sensei was supposed to return sometime today, and therefore inferred who had just arrived back in the village.

A soft shake on his shoulders shook him out of his thoughts. "Naru-nii," Menma said. "Why aren't you eating your food?"

"Sorry Menma-otouto," Naruto had a faint smile on his face. "I was thinking about something else."

"About what?" Menma asked.

"Training," was the simple answer given to the younger Uzumaki-Namikaze son.

Menma pouted at the response. "Naru-nii, that's all you ever think about. You should stop and come play with us one of these days."

'He's right,' Naruto realized. 'I've been so focused on getting stronger so I could protect them that I ended up spending less time with my siblings.'

"You're right." Naruto spoke, startling Menma with his sudden statement. "I haven't been spending much time with you, Natsumi-chan and Naomi-chan lately. Tell you what, today I'll join you guys in whatever you're doing after the Academy lets us out, okay?"

"Really?" Menma had stars shining in his eyes, the prospect of spending more time with his nii-chan extremely appealing to him.

"Yes. Shisui-sensei is returning from his mission today, so I don't think he will mind if I show up a bit later today, especially if he hears that I'm spending that time with my little otouto." Naruto said.

"Yay!" Menma cheered. "By the way, we're going to go to Ichiraku Ramen after school today."

"Do you go there every day after school?" Naruto asked. While ramen was an extremely delicious dish to eat, Naruto knew that it usually didn't have enough nutrients to sustain a young, growing child.

"Not every day. I wish we did though; kaa-chan only lets us come a few days a week," Menma whined.

"That's good of her," Naruto replied, a slight smirk on his face. "Eating ramen all the time isn't healthy for you, no matter how good it is."

"Not you too, Naru-nii!" Menma wailed dramatically, fake collapsing on the ground as though he was in distress.

"Doesn't mean that it's not true, Menma-otouto." Naruto said. Picking up his bento, Naruto took out a piece of food and began to eat it. "Come on, Menma-otouto. If you don't eat now, then you won't be able to go to Ichiraku Ramen later."

"Hey!" Menma argued. "You're not my mother!" Naruto simply chuckled good-naturedly at his brother's behavior.

It was good that they were showing a positive connection with each other right now, as external events would cause this to be the last time they would get to spend a significant amount of time with each other in many years.

* * *

Shisui crouched down on a branch as he overlooked the market area of the Uchiha clan district, watching as the civilian members and some shinobi members of the clan mingled with each other within the marketplace. As he searched among the crowd for his target, his mind thought back to what happened after their discussion.

After leaving the meeting room, Shisui and Itachi had split up, Shisui to the Uchiha district, and Itachi back to his ANBU duties. Despite not being happy with this decision, Itachi had grudgingly agreed that it would be more suspicious if both of them had gone when only Shisui was needed to carry out his task. Not to mention Itachi's ANBU teammates would have noticed that he hadn't returned after his meeting with the Hokage and his advisors.

Now, he was searching for the clan head or one of the clan elders, so he could complete his self-imposed task, and to hopefully help prevent the coup from even taking place.

As he watched over the marketplace, Shisui noticed a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye. Jumping backwards to another branch, he saw four kunai hit the branch he had been standing on from two different directions, both coming from the general direction of his clan district.

Seeing more movement in his surroundings, Shisui started jumping between branches as shuriken began flying through the air seemingly from all directions. He began heading towards a clearing where he knew the terrain and would be able to draw them out of the trees.

As he moved, Shisui risked a moment to glance back and try to see exactly who he was up against. To his surprise, he saw two cloaked figures pursuing him, both with blank ANBU-styled masks on. In the edge of his vision, he could make out several more figures running on both sides in the forest.

'ANBU? Why are they attacking me? Shouldn't they know that they aren't allowed to patrol near any clan district?' Shisui thought, perplexed by the identity of his attackers. Not dwelling on the matter, he concentrated on dodging the few shuriken that came his way as he drew closer and closer to his destination.

Landing in the middle of the clearing, Shisui turned to face his would-be attackers. He saw five distinct figures land at the edge of the clearing, though they didn't try to enter out into the open.

"Who are you? Why are you attacking a fellow Konoha shinobi?" Shisui ordered. Though he didn't expect them to give him an answer, it would at least give him a moment to catch his breath and come up with a form of action against them.

The ANBU remained motionless, opting to stay in a standoff against the lone Uchiha. It wasn't until the sound of footsteps breaking the silence that brought the attention of both sides to the newcomer.

The newcomer was an all-too familiar bandaged, cane wielding old man to Shisui. The brace around his right arm was nowhere to be found, something that Shisui took note of. His presence spoke volumes at what was happening at the moment. "Danzō-sama… I guess your presence here means that these ANBU here are members of the Foundation, am I correct?"

"Shisui Uchiha," Danzō spoke slowly, "The strongest member of the Uchiha clan today. It's a shame you didn't join me before. I promise I'll take good care of your eyes though. **Fūton: Shinkūgyoku**!" His hands went through several quick hand-seals before several dozen small wind spheres exploded from his mouth, fanning towards Shisui in a wave of bullets.

" **Shunshin no Jutsu**." Shisui quickly flickered out of the wave of wind spheres spheres before reappearing next to Danzō. His tantō drawn, flickering with the flames of Katon chakra running through the blade, Shisui swung down at the elder, who had pulled a kunai out from the sleeve of his kimono and rose the short weapon to block. The kunai, flowing with Fūton chakra, caused a small explosion as the two different elements mixed through the collision of the blades.

Shisui disappeared once more, his **Shunshin no Jutsu** leaving little to no trace of his presence. Danzō quickly moved as well, utilizing his own **Shunshin** in an attempt to keep up with the speedy Uchiha. The _Root_ shinobi could only watch as small explosions broke out across the clearing as they watched their leader go up against the proclaimed strongest Uchiha.

The two shinobi reappeared once more on opposite sides of the clearing. Both of the sported some damage on their clothes; Shisui had a couple of cuts along his sleeves and a rip along the edge of one side of his pants, while Danzō sported several burn marks on his robe.

"Why?" Shisui asked, panting heavily as he paused to catch his breath. "Don't you want to resolve this conflict like the rest of us? Why are you going against the Hokage's orders?"

"Minato is too naïve." Danzō replied. "He and Hiruzen are too caught up in the light that they are unable to do what's necessary when the situation calls for it. It falls to me to ensure that the darkness is upheld in this world. After all, light cannot exist without darkness."

"You're not even giving the plan a chance to work! How can you say that when you have no idea what the final outcome would be?"

"Very easily," Danzō said, going through some hand seals that Shisui, to his growing horror, recognized. " **Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku**!"

Unlike his last attack, which was a wave of wind bullets over a wide area, this particular technique merged the Fūton chakra Danzō gathered in his lungs and fired a single large wind sphere straight at Shisui.

Looking at the Fūton jutsu flying right at him, Shisui's Sharingan flashed as he quickly went through his own set of hand seals to counter. " **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu**!" Expelling a large fireball at the incoming wind sphere, the mixture of fire and wind caused a massive explosion to engulf a majority of the field. Gripping his tantō once more, Shisui jumped straight into the ash cloud, hoping to surprise the aged veteran with an unorthodox tactic.

To his chagrin, Shisui found the clearing empty when he emerged from the other side of the ash cloud. 'He definitely deserves his reputation,' Shisui begrudgingly admitted to himself.

His Sharingan spinning, Shisui kept his guard up as he looked for where the Konoha elder would show up. Despite seeming to be an old man, Danzō was a battle-worn veteran who was not to be taken lightly in any situation.

The slight movement of wind that accompanied the chakra enhanced kunai was the only warning he got before dashing out of the way. Despite this, the kunai was still able to inflict a medium-sized cut on Shisui's arm as it flew past and through a tree trunk on the other side of the clearing before disappearing. Turning towards the direction of the thrown kunai, Shisui spotted Danzō crouching in the shadow of a large tree, one arm extended in a throwing position. He flashed a small smirk at the elder, though that quickly disappeared when he noticed a Sharingan where the bandages on the elder's face used to cover.

During the time that he had slipped away, Danzō had taken the opportunity to unveil the secret Sharingan eye he kept hidden in his covered right eye socket to help aid him in this fight. He also went to make sure that the bandages wrapped around his right arm hadn't fallen off yet; with the metal brace off, these bandages were much more liable to sustaining damage in the battle.

Leveling a stone cold gaze at the elder, Shisui said, "Enough is enough. I'll end this now." Making eye-contact with Danzō, whose own Sharingan stared resolutely back at him, Shisui muttered, " **Genjutsu: Sharingan**."

* * *

 _(Genjutsu World)_

Shisui watched as he and Danzō stood alone in an empty field, void of all life except for the two of them. His Sharingan spun lazily as he stared at the elder's own red eye.

Stretching out a hand, several shuriken instantly materialized in Shisui's hands before he threw them with practiced ease. Across from him, he could see Danzō bring out a kunai to deflect the incoming shuriken.

It became a battle of wills between the two genjutsu users, each trying to assert their influence over the other. As attacks continued to be thrown at one another, it soon became clear that Shisui had the clear advantage. While Danzō's experience and his Sharingan helped him keep up with the Uchiha, in the end that was all he could do to fight against his mental prowess.

Having drawn a sword in the middle of the fight, Shisui was using it easily to deflect any weapons or attacks that Danzō was throwing his way. As he used one arm to swing the sword around, he raised his other hand forward and waved it around; tree roots rose up around the elder and bound him securely in place.

Danzō's face furrowed slightly, as wind blades materialized around him in an attempt to cut himself free, though he was only partially successfully.

Swinging his sword down several times, Shisui shot several wind strikes of his own at the immobile ex-ANBU, who could do nothing as he was forced to take the hits. The wind strikes cut through the tree roots with ease, and several gashes opened up on Danzō's body. The elder's own wind blades dissipated as he lost his concentration from the sudden pain of his ethereal wounds.

Approaching the elder, he watched Danzō sink to the ground, covered in blood. Standing in front of his kneeling form, Shisui simply said, "It was your mistake to pick a genjutsu fight with me," and brought his sword down.

* * *

In the real world, the two battling shinobi stood facing each other, neither moving an inch from where they were. A Genjutsu fight, after all, is a fight between wills and mental strength.

The _Root_ shinobi were tense as they watched the two unmoving shinobi. Recognizing a genjutsu fight, they didn't dare trying to interfere, lest they get caught in the middle of the mental warfare.

Suddenly, they watched as Danzō sunk to his knees, bringing his left bandaged hand to cover his Sharingan and planting his right hand firmly on the ground to support himself, all while panting heavily from the strain.

Shisui, on the other hand, barely looked winded at all. While Danzō dropped, he had merely stumbled a little as he regained his sense of balance. Focusing in the downed elder, who sending an angry scowl in his direction, Shisui sent his own glare back at him. Bringing his tantō up as he pushed off the ground, rocketing straight towards Danzō, Shisui thought to himself, 'No matter what happens, Danzō needs to be put down. His presence will only bring the Uchiha clan closer to ruin.'

Even though the _Root_ ANBU reacted immediately the moment they saw their leader collapse to the ground, they didn't stand a chance at competing with the Uchiha in speed. They could only watch as Shisui appeared instantly in front of Danzō, his tantō up and flowing with Katon chakra, as he slashed through the elder. From the angle he came at, his sword wasn't able to reach completely across the man's body, only going through about three quarters of the body. But since the sword sliced through the upper chest of the man, through one lung and half of the other as well as everything on the right side of his body and in between, it was safe to assume that his blow would be a fatal one. Nobody noticed that a small smirk appeared on Danzō's face as he came crashing to the floor.

As Shisui came to a stop, he turned around to both confirm that Danzō was indeed dead and to make sure that the _Root_ shinobi that were watching wouldn't try to catch him off guard, only to freeze in shock. The _Root_ ANBU were similarly stopped in place, all five of them staring at where Danzō's body was—or where it used to be. The elder's body was fading away in front of their eyes, leaving no trace of his body.

'What? My body can't move?' Shisui panicked, having tried to move the moment Danzō's body completely disappeared. He could only watch helplessly as Danzō rematerialized in front of him, noticeably missing a giant slash through his upper body, with his left arm stretched forward to pluck out his right eye.

"Agggghhhh!" Shisui screamed in pain as Danzō's fingers sunk into his eye socket, grasping the eye before sharply ripping it out. With a firm grasp on the eye, Danzō quickly jumped back to get some space from Shisui, who had fallen to one knee in pain, his right hand oozing with blood as it covered his empty eye socket, his left hand on the ground for support, and his left Sharingan spinning in a menacing manner at the elder.

"One eye has been acquired," Danzō said, mostly to himself. "Give up, Shisui-san. You can't win." This was directed at the angry Uchiha, who hadn't moved from his position.

"How… how did you escape? I was sure I had you dead." Shisui asked. He had closed his right eye socket in an attempt to help stop the flow of blood as he tried to figure out a solution to his problem. He was skilled enough to recognize that he had lost the momentum he had, and knew that if he didn't do something soon, he was most likely going to die.

"It figures you wouldn't know about the **Izanagi _,_** " Danzō replied, seeing no harm in telling the wounded Uchiha in what would most likely be his last moments. At the same time, he motioned with his right hand to his _Root_ ANBU to cut off any escape the Uchiha might be planning.

"The **Izanagi** is a forbidden kinjutsu of the Uchiha clan that I obtained after many long years of hard work. At the cost of permanent blindness in one Sharingan eye, the user can rewrite reality in whatever form they wish. For example, if I activate this technique moments before I die…"

"Then you could escape your own death." Shisui finished. Gritting his teeth, his thoughts turned towards an important point that Danzō had made in his explanation. "Then your Sharingan…"

"A small price to pay, but the prize is well worth the effort." Danzō started to take small but deliberate steps towards the young jōnin, increasing the tension in the air. "Please give up, Shisui-san. You have lost this battle."

Before he could walk any further, he heard the cry, " **Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!** " Quickly jumping backwards, Danzō watched as a hail of small fireballs rained down upon the clearing, forcing him and his _Root_ agents to scatter in order to avoid the fireballs. Noticeably, they all landed around Shisui, and when the technique finally stopped, Danzō could see a Weasel-masked ANBU land next to Shisui.

Weasel grabbed one of Shisui's arms and slung the man over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Once Shisui was slung over his back, Weasel quickly let go to perform some quick hand signs before unleashing a **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu** in the Foundation members' general direction. The moment the massive fireball left his mask, he immediately grabbed hold of both of Shisui's arms before turning around and running off into the forest.

"Go after them and make sure to kill Shisui!" Danzō barked at his subordinates, who immediately began moving to follow in pursuit of the ANBU member. "Be sure not to damage his remaining eye, and bring it back to me!" He called after them.

As he turned around to head back to the village with his first prize, he saw that one of his _Root_ had stayed behind, standing at attention. "What of the other ANBU?" He asked in a monotone voice.

"Try not to kill him," Danzō said. "It would cause too many problems if he were to die now. However, if there's no other choice, be sure to do it discreetly."

The _Root_ member nodded before turning to run after his teammates. Watching the last member go, Danzō relaxed a little before turning to head back to the village, intent on replacing the blinded Sharingan with the one he had taken from Shisui.

* * *

Jumping through the trees, Weasel quickly ran through a mental list of his possible courses of action. With Shisui injured and conscious across one of his shoulders, the first priority should be to get him to the nearest medic. Unfortunately for him, he had took off in a random direction the moment he secured his friend, so they weren't headed towards any medical structures.

"Itachi?" Shisui slowly asked as they sped through the trees. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, so I decided to come and assist you. I'm glad that I did, since it seemed like you were in a real bind back there." Itachi replied.

"Itachi… the plan has been compromised. Danzō won't stop until I'm dead, since he wasn't able to kill me back there. One of us have to make it back alive, and you're still uninjured."

Confused, Itachi asked, "Why was he attacking you though? I thought he wanted the Uchiha rebellion to be quelled as well."

"He didn't agree with how we were going to do it. Itachi, you have to warn the Hokage: Danzō had a Sharingan underneath the bandages on his head, and he tried to steal my Mangekyō Sharingan just now. He'll definitely try to take yours as well if you stay."

Itachi was shocked. "Is that why your eye is bleeding?"

"Yeah," Shisui grunted out as a new wave of pain hit him. "He managed to take one before you got here, and I have no doubt he'll try to take the other one as well."

Itachi began to ask another question, but abruptly stopped as three kunai flew past him and hit the trees in front of them. Wrapped with explosive tags, the moment the kunai hit the trees they exploded, causing a cloud of smoke erupt in from of the two Uchiha. Unable to stop their momentum, Itachi was forced to carry them through the smoke, effectively blinding the two of them.

Due to the smoke, Itachi was unable to see one of the _Root_ shinobi head straight towards them and kicked them down towards the ground. Hurtling out of the smoke cloud, Itachi and Shisui landed painfully in the middle of a small, open area close to the edge of the woods.

Hitting the ground, Itachi laid there stunned for a moment, during which another _Root_ ANBU quickly approached them, his tantō out and swinging in a decapitating motion.

Quickly withdrawing his own katana from his ANBU uniform, Itachi brought it up in a block, which managed to hold its own as the enemy's tantō connected. Immediately being pushed back, Itachi dug his heels into the ground in order to counter the force pushing against him, halting them in place. Out of the side of his eyes, Itachi's Sharingan picked up two other _Root_ agents dropping down on either side and rushing him. His senses also noticed two chakra signatures going

Despite being able to see them coming at him, Itachi was forced to hold his ground and do nothing as the two enemy shinobi charged at him, one with his tantō out, the other holding a kunai in a reverse grip. The _Root_ ninja locking swords with him was also avoiding his gaze, leaving him unable to cast any genjutsu without sustaining serious injury to himself. Despite Itachi's natural prowess, he was still only 13 years old, and as such had not yet learned how to cast powerful genjutsu without the use of his Sharingan.

Being forced into a corner, Itachi was left in a tight situation. He could either stay there defending Shisui, who was down on the ground behind him, and hope an opening that he could take advantage of appeared when the two approaching shinobi made their moves; he could try to cast a jutsu in the several seconds he had, though that would require him to let go of his katana with at least one hand, thereby lessening the force he was pushing against the first _Root_ agent; or he could jump back and gain some breathing room from the three enemy shinobi, though that would leave Shisui in between him and them, which was what he was trying to avoid.

The _Root_ ANBU made the decision for Itachi, jumping backwards as soon as he felt his two allies were within striking distance. Momentarily disoriented by sudden lack of resistance, Itachi was only able to bring his guard up to defend against one of his attackers. His katana clashing with the second tantō-wielding ANBU, Itachi could do nothing as the kunai-wielding ANBU's foot crashed against his abdomen, sending him flying across the clearing. Luckily for him, neither his katana nor the tantō did any damage to him as the two swords disengaged.

Unfortunately, this action left Shisui wide open, which the _Root_ ANBU took full advantage of. The moment Itachi was sent flying, the first ANBU reversed his movement and sprinted back towards the fray. Reaching Shisui, who was pushing himself up to face the upcoming threat, the ANBU delivered his own kick against Shisui's abdomen, sending him further away from Itachi.

The _Root_ ANBU regrouped in the middle of the area in between of the two Uchiha. The two missing ANBU joined the original three there, having looped around the sides in case Itachi had tried to make an escape before. While one of the ANBU turned to face Itachi in case he tried to interfere with their mission, the other four _Root_ turned towards Shisui. "Throw explosive tags at him, and aim away from his face!" One of the _Root_ members ordered the others.

The four _Root_ agents threw around a dozen explosive tags at Shisui, who had managed to support himself onto one of his knees. Itachi, who was unable to do anything without attempting to go through the group of ANBU, could only watch as the kunai exploded around his friend. Confident that Shisui had been dealt with, three of the ANBU turned around to deal with Itachi, while the other two went to secure the objective for their leader.

A startled gasp from one of the _Root_ ANBU soon drew everyone's attention as their eyes turned to look at the source of the noise. They all stared in shock as the smoke that remained from the explosive tags were emanating a strange green glow. Hands tightening on their equipment, the _Root_ shinobi tensed as they waited for the smoke cloud to disperse. During this time, Itachi took the chance to sneak off and circle around to the right, both to get a better vantage point on the _Root_ shinobi and to try and see what had happened to Shisui.

To Itachi's amazement and the _Root_ ANBUs' horror, the smoke revealed a greenish tinted skeletal skull and ribcage formed around Shisui, who had managed to stand onto his two feet, though his right eye was still closed shut with drying blood still leaking from the eyelids.

" **Susanoo**." Shisui uttered quietly. The power of the technique could be felt just by hearing the name. As they watched in disbelief, a set of armor had already begun materializing along the ribcage, improving the technique's defensive power and giving it a more complete feel.

Realizing that Shisui would only get stronger if they didn't stop him now, three of the _Root_ shinobi immediately charged ahead, while the other two started going through various hand signs in order to provide support for their comrades.

During that time, a green drill had formed in the right hand of the armored figure, which appeared to be the main weapon as the armor finished forming. As Shisui raised his own right arm in front of him, the armored titan around him mimicked his actions, lifting its drill hand and pointing it towards the rushing _Root_ ninja.

" **Susanoo: Tsukumo**." Shisui intoned. The green drill began glowing intensely as chakra was channeled into it, before it released a flurry of chakra needles at the enemy. Needless to say, the _Root_ shinobi who were charging forward had no time to react as the needles pierced their bodies, sending them face first into the ground. The shinobi standing further back were able to get out of the way as they had more time to react to the incoming needles, which zipped harmlessly past them before dissipating harmlessly into the distance.

One of the two remaining _Root_ operatives immediately turned to flee the scene, which the other noticed. Knowing that if they weren't able to complete the mission their immediate objective would be to report back to base, the second shinobi drew his tantō in a defiant stand to buy time for his comrade to get away. As he turned to face the green juggernaut, he felt the heat of a fireball whisk past his back, along with the startled cry of his comrade. Frantically moving to try and get a clear view of the two attackers, the ANBU could do nothing as he heard a cry of " **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu** " before a second fireball impacted his body.

Seeing the final two _Root_ shinobi go down, Shisui sagged in relief as he sunk to the ground, his **Susanoo** devolving and dissipating from around him. Itachi, who had fired the second fireball from the treetops within which he was hiding, quickly dropped to the ground and ran to where Shisui had fallen. Ignoring the bodies of the ANBU on the ground, Itachi guided Shisui over to one of the trees in the small clearing, where he rested them against a tree trunk.

"Itachi," Shisui murmured as Itachi began checking over what wounds Shisui had sustained in the previous fights. "Danzō won't stop coming after me until I'm dead, especially since I survived his attack."

"Don't worry about it Shisui. Just rest for now, we can deal with this later," Itachi replied.

"No Itachi, this has become a bigger issue now. If we don't do something now, the entire clan might be faced with their destruction sooner." Shisui retorted.

Shaken by the thought, Itachi softly asked, "What do you propose we do then Shisui?"

Shisui sighed. "The only idea I have isn't good, but it will be able to buy us some time." Seeing Itachi's inquisitive look, he elaborated, "Take my left eye, and go back to the clan compound. Danzō wants me dead now, and this'll satisfy him and keep my other eye safe with you."

Itachi recoiled, shocked that Shisui would suggest such a plan. "But if you do that, then you'll die for sure. I can't do this all by myself."

"You're strong, Itachi," Shisui said, startling Itachi by the sudden acknowledgement of his strength, as his hand began to reach up towards his left eye. "If there's anyone who would be able to bring our clan together, it's you."

A resounding smack could be heard throughout the forest. Shisui stared in shock as his hand fell to the side, being slapped in the face by Itachi. A stern but sad look could be seen on Itachi's face, as unshed tears shone from his eyes.

"No Shisui, you can't just leave this all to me. What about the rest of the clan? Your death will cause them to revolt much sooner, and I don't think I'll be able to hold them back just by myself." Shisui lowered his head, quickly realizing what the consequences to his actions could be.

Seeing that his words were working, Itachi pressed on with his reasoning. "And what about Naruto-kun? How am I supposed to tell him that you killed yourself when he doesn't even know the reasoning behind it? All he'll think is that he caused you to commit suicide."

"Just because I'm strong doesn't mean I can do everything by myself Shisui. I'm still young, and I have no doubt that I will need your help in the upcoming future." Itachi finished, looking down to the ground as he admitted his flaw.

Itachi held his breath, unsure of whether or not Shisui would be swayed. "Alright Itachi, I'm okay now," Shisui suddenly said, "Sorry for trying to get out of the situation. Let's head back."

Itachi smiled, happy that his friend would be there to help him, before a thought struck his mind. "Shisui, one other thing." Getting a questioning look from Shisui, Itachi continued, "Recently, I've been approached by a strange man. He wore an orange spiral-designed mask and dark armored clothing, and he had the Sharingan."

"What?" Shisui was startled. Apart from Kakashi Hatake, he had never heard of anyone else outside the clan possessing their famed dōjutsu.

"That's not all, he claimed to be Madara Uchiha. I don't know whether he's telling the truth or not, but the man is extremely dangerous." Itachi said.

"We shouldn't take his word that he is who he claims," Shisui interjected. "It's possible that he is simply using Madara's name to further his own goals. Madara Uchiha is infamous around the Elemental Nations, and claiming to be on par with him means either he's a fool or he has considerable power at his disposal."

"Right, well this Madara offered to help me deal with our clan's coup d'état. His suggested plan aligns with Danzō's in that he would help kill the members of our clan, but in return I would have to help him achieve his goals." Itachi finished.

"Well, I definitely wouldn't trust him, seeing that we have no idea who he is. And if he claims to be able to assist in wiping out the entire Uchiha clan, he's definitely someone we need to watch." Shisui voiced.

"I agree completely." Itachi replied. "I just wanted you to know so that you could help keep an eye out for that man and what his end goals may be. A wild card isn't something we need to deal with right now."

"Okay, but why didn't you tell me sooner then?" Shisui questioned as Itachi helped him get off the ground and started walking back towards the village, ignoring the dead _Root_ shinobi lying on the ground around them.

"This encounter happened right before you left for your mission." Itachi deadpanned. "You left so quickly that I wasn't able to tell you beforehand."

"Oh," Shisui stayed silent for a second. "That seemed like it happened so long ago."

* * *

Fūton: Shinkūgyoku - Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere

Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku - Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere

Genjutsu: Sharingan - Illusion Technique - Copy Eye Wheel

Izanagi - Izanagi

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu - Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique

Kotoamatsukami - Distinguished Heavenly Gods

Shunshin no Jutsu - Body Flicker Technique

Susanoo - He with the ability to help by all means

Susanoo: Tsukumo - He with the ability to help by all means: Ninety-Nine

* * *

Hello there. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my fanfic. It really means alot to me.

We've passed both the 100 favorites and the 100 follows marks! I'm honored to see that at least 100 of you amazing readers have enjoyed my story enough to leave a favorite/follow on this story.

Sorry that this update took so long to write though. I wanted to get the entire event into one chapter, but due to how long it was taking me to write it, I decided to split it up into two chapters. The next update should conclude this sort-of arc. I hope that the fighting scenes, while kind of short, are to your liking. Although I may have been too descriptive in some scenes, I've always disliked being kept in the dark on how things work. Hopefully this won't take away too much from the story.

Also sorry that this chapter is kinda Shisui-centric. I wanted the story to have Shisui's background established in this chapter, but I didn't quite realize how much that ended up being until I was almost done.

After rereading the first few chapters, I realized that what I had written may not have worked out so well as I had hoped it to be. Eventually, I will revise the chapters, but I will most likely just replace the chapter I am revising. This will be done on my own time, however, as I would like to get farther along with the story before I begin any minor-ish revisions.

One such thing is the Kotoamatsukami I gave the masked man (we all know who he is, but for the sake of the story, I'll keep him described that way for now). While according to canon, Kotoamatsukami is unique to Shisui, I felt that the regular Sharingan was too weak to be able to control other people such as Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. When I first started writing this story, I thought by giving this technique to the masked man, it could help explain how his genjutsu is so potent. I would like your opinions as to whether or not this characteristic takes away from the plot or not.

One of the viewers asked whether a Naruto/Yakumo pairing would be considered in this story. I'm sorry to say that this pairing won't be happening here. Not only would it not follow the plot that I've laid out, but I also don't think I know enough about Yakumo to portray her properly.

If any of you have any ideas as to how I can improve my story, whether it be content I have already written or stuff to do in the future, I would be more than happy to receive those comments in either the reviews and/or a PM. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again in the next chapter.


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